Tokyo 2020 Olympic torch relay begins 1:03
Tokyo (CNN) -
When Tokyo 2020 Olympics volunteers asked officials in recent weeks how they will be protected against COVID-19, given the foreign athletes arriving in Japan for the event and the low vaccination rate the country, the answer was simple.
Each will be given a small bottle of hand sanitizer and two masks.
"They don't talk about vaccines, they don't even talk about getting tested," said German volunteer Barbara Holthus, director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies at Sophia University in Tokyo.
With 100 days to go until the Olympic Games, which have already been postponed a year due to the new coronavirus pandemic, questions remain about how Tokyo can hold a massive sporting event and keep volunteers, athletes, officials and the Japanese public at bay. except for covid-19.
That concern has been amplified by Japan's battle with a looming fourth wave.
The country surpassed 500,000 total coronavirus cases on Saturday, and some prefectures are again tightening their covid-19 restrictions as daily infections rise.
Hideaki Oka, a professor at Saitama Medical University, said Japan may not be able to contain the last wave before the Games start on July 23.
advertising
100 days to Tokyo Olympics: the stories you need to know
While Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga reiterated on Monday his promise to secure 100 million doses of vaccines by the end of June, Japan has so far only vaccinated about 1.1 million of its 126 million people, less than 1% of the population.
Only 0.4% have received two doses.
Holthus said supporting the Games was meant to be a "once in a lifetime" opportunity.
But now it is a really dangerous experience, he considered.
In a statement to CNN, the Tokyo 2020 organizers said they were preparing to hold "a safe and secure Games without assuming there will be a vaccine and even no vaccines."
"On the other hand, we hope that the vaccines will be properly administered at home and abroad and that, therefore, the infection will be reduced as a whole," the statement said.
The slow vaccination process in Japan
With a $ 25 billion Olympics to host, arguably no country in Asia had more incentive than Japan to control its COVID-19 cases and vaccinate its population.
However, Japanese regulators were slow to approve COVID-19 vaccines, compared to other governments, and it took more than two months to allow the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Its rollout didn't begin until February, and older people only started getting their doses on April 12, according to Kyodo News.
Experts said part of the delay was due to the official precaution designed to avoid skepticism about the vaccine that has damaged previous vaccination efforts in Japan.
Either way, that approach has left Japan lagging behind other Asian nations, such as China, which has administered 171 million vaccines, and India, which has distributed 108 million doses.
"They say that the elderly are supposed to be vaccinated in June, but in reality, even medical personnel who are treating covid have not yet been vaccinated," said Oka of Saitama Medical University, adding that he did not believe that it was reach the vaccination goal by June.
Oka said the government should prioritize vaccinating all athletes entering the country for the Games, but the Japanese government has resisted this approach, after media reports that Olympic athletes would be prioritized prompted a backlash on social media in Japan.
Beijing had offered to provide vaccines for all athletes at the 2020 Olympics, but Tokyo rejected the offer, saying Chinese-made options had not yet been authorized for use in Japan.
International spectators have been excluded from the Games to try to reduce the risk of spreading covid-19 at the event.
But more than 11,000 athletes from more than 200 countries are expected to participate.
Little protection for the Olympics
Without plans to vaccinate athletes, the tens of thousands of volunteers who participate have little chance of protection.
Holthus said Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee Chair Hashimoto Seiko told volunteers - during a Zoom call - that she relied on "her smile" to make the Olympics a success, a particularly jarring statement because everyone they would wear masks.
"[They told us] 'your smile will make the Olympics exist' and you wonder, are you kidding me?"
said Holthus, who is scheduled to volunteer as a ticket collector.
One volunteer, who attended an 80-minute conference on infectious disease control for the Games volunteers, said they were told by a Japanese infectious disease expert that they shouldn't count on being vaccinated before the event.
"[He said] unless you are elderly there will not be enough time for ordinary people to get vaccinated," said the volunteer, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid being excluded from her role in the Olympics.
She said she felt angry and scared after the performance.
The volunteer, who had participated in previous Olympics, said she was considering dropping out unless all volunteers were vaccinated.
"Not to do so is to show reckless disregard for our lives and the optimal safe environment that Japan, as the host country, is obliged to provide," he said.
Tokyo 2020 did not respond to questions about the content of the presentation given to the volunteers.
North Korea would not participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
North Korea would get out of the Tokyo 2020 games 0:42
Questions about athletes
Even countries with almost no infections have struggled to host major sporting events during the pandemic.
In January, some players who came to Melbourne for the Australian Open tennis tournament complained on social media about the strict health monitoring measures they encountered.
At one point, viewers were barred from access for several days amid a small Covid-19 outbreak in the city.
For Japan, where there were 2,112 new cases on Tuesday, it will be a bigger challenge.
International participants will need a negative covid-19 test within 72 hours before traveling to Japan, where they will be re-evaluated, according to
The Tokyo 2020 Guide
, published by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), on February 21.
But according to the IOC document, athletes will not be required to self-quarantine for 14 days after arriving in Japan, unless they have violated the country's covid-19 precautions or have been potentially exposed to the virus.
During the Games, participants will be "screened for covid-19 at different intervals," and all athletes and visitors will be assigned a "covid-19 Liaison Officer."
International guests have only been asked to leave their accommodation to "go to official Games venues and limited additional locations," a list of which will be published in the second guide, to be released this month.
Hugs and high-fives should be avoided and public transportation should not be used.
A mask must be worn at all times.
Tokyo 2020 organizers did not respond to questions about how physical distancing measures would be maintained at the Olympic Village.
Tokyo 2020 Olympic torch relay begins 1:03
Will Tokyo 2020 be a super-spreading event?
While athletes from the Olympic Village will have tested negative for all tests before arriving in Japan, they will inevitably come into contact with tens of thousands of untested volunteers who will travel between the Olympic venues and their homes.
The Tokyo 2020 website said volunteers must take public transportation to the Olympic venues when volunteering.
In Tokyo, there were 510 new confirmed cases of covid-19 on Tuesday.
In a statement to CNN, Tokyo 2020 said it had released a brochure informing volunteers about COVID-19 countermeasures, including wearing face masks, washing hands, and keeping a safe distance from others.
In response to a question on whether any Tokyo 2020 events would be postponed due to covid, the statement said that the situation was "constantly changing."
Holthus said that in addition to hand sanitizer and two masks, Games officials had offered volunteers a "health diary" in which they could record their own health.
“It will be concentrated groups of people from all over the world, mixing.
What if there is a group that takes place in one of the Olympic venues?
What if it comes from one of us? "
she said.
Oka, the Saitama University of Medicine professor, shared the volunteers' concerns and said the Games could allow the spread of dangerous variants of covid-19 not only in Japan, but around the world.
Oka said he was also concerned that Japan's already extended hospital system would not be able to cope if there was a sudden influx of athletes and volunteers infected with the virus.
"As an infectious disease specialist, I cannot approve of holding the Games in a situation where not enough vaccines have been applied and enough countermeasures have been implemented," he said.
In a statement to CNN, the Tokyo 2020 organizing body said it had "high hopes" that the COVID-19 situation in Japan would improve before the Olympics.
"We will continue to work closely with these parties as we prepare to deliver a safe and secure Games this [boreal] summer," the statement said.
Olympics volunteer Philbert Ono said he trusted the government and the IOC to keep athletes and volunteers safe.
'The Japanese love to witness history.
And you know that these Olympic Games are very, very historical […] they will be very different Olympic Games.
And that's another thing I'm looking forward to, ”he said.
saying.
I just want to see how they do it.
But Holthus said he did not believe the Games should go ahead with the current state of preparation, which was a "recipe for a super-spreading event."
"We still can't imagine how bad it could be," he said.
But the damage will be done once the Games are held.
There is no going back once everyone flies.
Olympic Games
