With one week to the day of the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, the Japanese capital still did not have the heart to celebrate this countdown on Friday, as local cases of Covid-19 continued to climb.
Almost all of the Olympic events (23 July-8 August) will take place behind closed doors and the tens of thousands of participants - from athletes to officials, including journalists from abroad - are subject to draconian restrictions. due to health risks.
These "countermeasures" are not enough to reassure the population in Japan, while Tokyo on Thursday recorded 1,308 additional cases of coronavirus, a number more reached since January.
The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, however assured Thursday that the anti-Covid measures at the Olympics were working, and that the delegations followed and supported these rules.
"It is in their interest and in solidarity with the people of Tokyo," said Bach after visiting the Olympic Village.
Thirty cases of Covid-19 on people linked to the Olympics, including one concerning an athlete, have been reported to date by the organizers who have been recording these cases since July 1.
State of emergency restored
The discovery of a home among the employees of a hotel in Hamamatsu (central Japan), where the Brazilian judo team took up residence before the Olympics, was also revealed by local authorities. A state of health emergency was put in place from Monday in Tokyo until August 22, thus encompassing the entire period of the Olympics. This device reduces the opening hours of bars and restaurants and asks them not to serve alcohol.
In Japan, the pandemic has been relatively less severe than in many other countries around the world, with fewer than 15,000 officially recorded deaths since early 2020, and without total containment.
But the vaccination campaign started very slowly in the world's third largest economy, before accelerating from May.
About 20% of the Japanese population is fully vaccinated so far.
Dozens of sports teams are already in Japan, some in training camps scattered around the country, others in the Olympic Village, where national flags have been hung from the buildings housing the delegations.
"The prison yard"
British weightlifter Sarah Davies posted on social media about the lives of athletes in Japan ahead of these very special Olympics. "We have what we call the prison yard," she quipped in a video posted on her Instagram account, where she filmed herself walking on a pedestrian alley. "So we can go up and down this section between 7:00 am and 10:00 am, and that's the only time we are allowed to go out," she added. “We really feel like we're in prison. But it's like that (...). Welcome to the Olympic Games, Covid edition ”.
Other teams, including American swimmers and gymnastics star Simone Biles, also posted images of their training sites.
Thomas Bach was Friday in Hiroshima (western Japan) to mark the start of the “Olympic truce” approved by the United Nations.
The IOC Vice-President, John Coates, was in Nagasaki, the other Japanese city victim of an atomic bomb in 1945. This truce, which is to last until September 12 (a week after the end of the Paralympic Games ) is traditionally meant to ensure the suspension of all hostilities to allow the safe passage and participation of athletes and spectators from around the world.
Less than 1,000 spectators at the opening ceremony
According to Japanese media, Bach has asked Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to consider allowing spectator access to Olympic venues if the health situation improves again. The highly controversial demand in Japan was reportedly made during a meeting between the two men on Wednesday. Mr. Suga would have replied that any modification of the rules relating to spectators would be decided by all the stakeholders (Japanese government, Tokyo municipality, local Olympic organizing committee, IOC and International Paralympic Committee). Less than 1,000 people, mainly dignitaries and officials, should be allowed to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics on July 23, according to Japanese media.