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Horst Seehofer: "He's fine"
Photo: Florian Gaertner / photothek.de / imago images / photothek
Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) does not travel to the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
A spokesman for his ministry justified this with the corona pandemic, during which the trip was an "avoidable risk".
The head of department Seehofer, who is also responsible for sports, was until recently with a corona infection in quarantine at home for four weeks and, according to his ministry, has been back in his office in Berlin since the beginning of last week.
"He's fine," said the announcer.
The spokesman praised the infection protection precautions of the Japanese authorities.
"So you really try to do everything you can to prevent an outbreak of infection there." It was important to the Ministry of Sports that the athletes and their teams were vaccinated well in advance of the games.
The ministry would not be able to provide any confirmations for this.
"We assume that this will be implemented," said the spokesman.
A government spokeswoman did not want to say whether Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) will travel to Japan for the games.
As usual, the Chancellor's appointments would be announced one week in advance.
The Olympic Games are to be held from July 23rd to August 8th under hygiene and corona rules.
Quasi-emergency in Tokyo?
The Japanese government is considering putting Tokyo under a quasi-emergency during the Games. A government official said that, as reported by the Japanese news agency Kyodo. Tokyo, along with other prefectures, is in a corona emergency until Sunday, which had previously been extended several times. However, the emergency in Japan is not a lockdown: restaurants should stop serving alcohol and close at 8 p.m., as well as department stores and cinemas. Larger events in culture and sport are allowed again, but with a maximum of 5000 spectators.
The games had been postponed for a year due to the corona crisis.
At the G7 summit, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga reaffirmed his determination to hold the Games regardless of the pandemic and the widespread opposition among its own people.
"We will prepare for safe games in Tokyo and take all measures to prevent the virus from spreading," he said.
The G7 nations, including Germany, support the plan.
ptz / dpa