Olympic Games 2021 in Tokyo: First corona cases among athletes in the Olympic village

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Security guards at the entrance to the Olympic Village

Photo: KIM KYUNG-HOON / REUTERS

Corona has also reached the athletes in the Olympic Village. The organizers of the Tokyo Summer Olympics (July 23 to August 8) confirmed two positive tests among athletes on Sunday. A corona case had already been reported to an official in the Olympic village the day before. According to the International Olympic Committee, all three come from the same foreign team and have gone into quarantine.

According to the IOC, 15 of 15,000 accredited people who came from abroad tested positive for the virus in the first half of July.

"That is a very low rate of 0.1 percent," calculated IOC boss Thomas Bach.

"The measures are being implemented and they are working," said the 67-year-old.

Originally, however, the set of rules was supposed to ensure that no infections at all occur in the athletes' village.

55 corona cases related to the games

The International Olympic Committee is also affected by a case in Tokyo.

IOC member Ryu Seung-min (38), South Korean table tennis Olympic champion in 2004, tested positive upon arrival in Japan, according to an official announcement.

In total, the organizers registered ten new infections in connection with the Olympic Games on Sunday.

This brought the total to 55 cases five days before the opening ceremony.

"We believe we have the situation under control," said Hidemasa Nakamura, the head of the responsible department of the Tokyo Games Organizing Committee.

The games should start next Friday.

No spectators are allowed at the competition venues in Tokyo.

The Summer Olympics, originally planned for 2020, had been postponed for a year due to the pandemic.

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