A new state of emergency, reinforced measures to fight against Covid-19, an extremely slow vaccination rate ... Nothing, at first glance, encourages the maintenance of the Olympic Games which are due to open in Tokyo, Japan, July 23.
While the Japanese government must pronounce, this Friday, a state of health emergency in Tokyo and in three other departments of the country - Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo - in the face of a sharp local upsurge of the coronavirus, the threat on the appointment athleticism is at its height.
"We have a strong feeling of crisis", conceded this Friday the Japanese minister in charge of the fight against the virus, Yasutoshi Nishimura.
“We will not be able to contain the variants that have powerful infectious capacities, unless we take stronger measures than those taken so far.
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Establishments serving alcohol (restaurants, bars, karaoke, etc.) will have to close their doors from this Sunday until May 11 inclusive, as well as shopping centers and department stores.
Authorities in relevant departments are also likely to ban spectator access to sporting events, but the emergency measures will have no impact on the organization of the Tokyo Olympics, officials believe.
A very slow vaccination campaign
The organizing committee and Japanese officials stress that vaccines are not a prerequisite for hosting the Games, which will open on July 23.
And fortunately, because Japanese vaccination is progressing at a snail's pace, between medical caution, regulatory brakes and bureaucratic red tape: only 827,000 people are fully vaccinated, or less than 0.7% of the population, according to official data to date. Wednesday.
Despite the assurance displayed by the organizers, this vaccine slowness feeds doubts about the ability to organize the event. Seeing faster vaccinations abroad, "more and more people are realizing that the delay in the vaccination process has put Japan in a difficult position to host the Olympics," said Takakazu Yamagishi, director of the Business Center. studies from Nanzan University in Nagoya (center), expert in health policies. According to him, this could "weaken their support for the Games".
In an article in the British Medical Journal this month, four experts cited Japan's "slow vaccine roll-out" as worrying factors to urge plans for the Games to be " urgently reviewed ”.
And that's without counting on the skepticism of the population: a majority of Japanese have already been opposed for months to the holding of the Olympics this summer, according to all the polls on the issue.
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"We will be able to organize the Games even without vaccination," nevertheless repeats the director general of Tokyo-2020, Toshiro Muto. The organizers of the Olympics, who have already banned access to audiences from abroad, have yet to decide how many local spectators could be admitted. “Of course, if the vaccines are available, that would be an advantage,” he says. But as far as we are concerned, regardless of the vaccine, we will take strong measures against Covid-19 to be able to organize the Games. "
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) encourages athletes to get vaccinated and has obtained Chinese doses for teams from countries with limited access to vaccines. Several countries have already vaccinated their Olympic teams or are planning to do so. In the meantime, time is running out to achieve significant immunity in Japan before the opening of the Games, notes Takakazu Yamagishi, because scientists estimate that it takes "about six months to have a clear drop" in infections. “It's too late,” he says.
