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First COVID-19 case detected in Tokyo Olympic Village

2021-07-17T13:35:13.133Z


"Organizers should try to make sure people understand that these games are safe," said Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto.


By Corky Siemaszko - NBC News

COVID-19 has infiltrated the Olympic Village in Tokyo.

A day after the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, insisted that there was "no risk" of the athletes infecting anyone outside the sealed section of Tokyo, the head of the organizing committee confirmed on Saturday that a person who was staying there tested positive for the disease.

Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto told a press conference that the infected person

was not an athlete, but someone involved in organizing the games.

He did not want to identify the nationality of the individual, but acknowledged that the disclosure will not reassure his nervous compatriots.

"I understand that there are still a lot of worrying factors," Hashimoto said.

"The organizers should try to make people understand that

these games are safe," he

added.

"We are sparing no effort," he

added.

With polls showing that

many Japanese are opposed to holding sports competition

in the midst of a pandemic, "safe and secure" has become the mantra of the Japanese government and IOC officials who strive to secure the country. that the sudden influx of athletes and visitors from abroad will not make the games a super-spreading event.

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Most of the 11,000 athletes competing in the games, which

begin July 23 and end August 8, will

be staying on the 109-acre waterfront.

Most of them are still on their way to Japan, but already

about 40 people

linked to the Games - both Japanese and foreigners -

have tested positive for COVID-19,

according to Olympic officials.

The security team at the entrance to the Olympic Village, where the first COVID-19 infection has been confirmed six days before the start of the Games.KIM KYUNG-HOON / REUTERS

The alarming rise in new coronavirus cases prompted Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to announce a state of emergency in Tokyo last week.

As a result, there will be no fans cheering on the athletes, and the most iconic Olympic events, such as the opening and closing ceremonies, will likely lack the pomp and pageantry of previous games.

Meanwhile, the Ugandan Olympic team was receiving international attention for all the wrong reasons.

Two members of

Uganda's Olympic delegation

, a 20-year-old athlete and a 50-year-old coach, became the

first competitors to test positive

last month upon arriving in Tokyo and were banned from going on.

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Perhaps most embarrassing for both Uganda and the Japanese customs officials tasked with preventing the spread of the pandemic,

the rest of the team were allowed to travel to their training ground near the city of Osaka

, despite having been in close contact with their infected companions.

Then on

Friday, a 20-year-old Ugandan weightlifter named Julius Ssekitoleko

, who hadn't gotten a

spot

on the team,

was reported missing after failing to take a COVID-19 test

at the training camp, located near Osaka, in Izumisano.

"They are still looking for this athlete," Hashimoto said Saturday.

Asked whether Ssekitoleko's days as an Olympics contender are over, Hashimoto said: "I have not received any reports that no one has found him, but unless we listen to his explanation, it is difficult for us to decide what action to take."

A social distancing poster in front of a police officer prior to the arrival of International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach at Haneda Airport ahead of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan on July 8, 2021. REUTERS / Kim Kyung-Hoon

Beatrice Ayikoru, who heads the Ugandan delegation, said Ssekitoleko and her coach were due to return to Uganda on Tuesday.

According to her,

he left a note saying that he wanted to stay in Japan and find work.

But during team meetings in Uganda and Japan, Ayikoru told The Japan Times that "the need to respect Japan's immigration rules and not choose to leave the camp without authorization" was repeatedly stressed.

Uganda has been competing in the Olympics since 1956 and has won a total of seven medals: two gold, three silver and two bronze.

Four of the medals Uganda has won were boxing.

The others were athletics.

And the last time a Ugandan won a medal was at the 2012 Olympics in London, when long-distance runner Stephen Kiprotich won the marathon and the gold medal.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2021-07-17

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