07/27/2021 10:11
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 07/27/2021 10:11 AM
While this Tuesday passed the fourth day of competitions at the Olympic Games, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported that the city had registered a new daily record of coronavirus cases.
Despite this, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga ruled out the cancellation of the event outright.
Tokyo reported 2,848 new cases of covid-19 in the last 24 hours and, thus, exceeded the 2,520 registered on January 7, when the country was going through the second wave of infections, and which constituted the highest mark since the start of the pandemic.
With these cases, the capital accumulates more than 200,000 infections.
The city has been under its fourth state of emergency since July 12, which will extend beyond the end of the Olympic Games and will end on August 22, just before the start of the Paralympics.
Experts had warned that the more contagious delta variant of the coronavirus could cause a rebound during the Games, which began on Friday.
Faced with these worrying figures, the Japanese prime minister tried to provide reassurance.
"We are taking measures to reduce the movement of people," said Suga, who asked his compatriots to "stay at home and enjoy the Games on television."
In statements made after a meeting with his Cabinet, the Japanese president explained that most of the new infections, around 70 percent, had been registered in people between 30 and 40 years old, and also stressed that they were observed each time more infections of the new delta variant.
All the events of the Olympic Games are taking place without the presence of the public.
(Photo: Pilar Olivares / Reuters)
For her part, the governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, highlighted the worrying increase in people with severe symptoms in the capital and stressed the importance of young people "getting vaccinated as soon as possible."
In Japan, only 25.5 percent of the population received the two doses of the vaccine, the vast majority over 65, according to the most recent government data.
Japanese medical experts have been warning of a foreseeable increase in infections both in Tokyo and throughout Japan that would exceed 3,000 cases in the capital between the end of July and the beginning of August, due to the data on the incidence of the virus and the detection of the most contagious variants.
Across the country, the number of infections surpassed 7,000 cases for the first time since May and approached more than 8,000 last January, when the virus spread rapidly both in Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures.
With regard to the Games, whose tests are being carried out without the presence of the public at the venues, 153 infections have been detected since the tests began on the participants on July 1.
Among the positives there were 19 athletes or other members of Olympic teams, which represents 0.02 percent of all tests carried out, according to data from the organizers.
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