Japan's Nishikori adds voice to Olympic concerns
Japan's top-ranked men's tennis player Kei Nishikori added his voice to concerns about staging the Olympic Games in Tokyo in July, as the country battles a surge in Covid-19 cases.
Naomi Osaka, Japan's No.1 women's tennis player, raised similar concerns on Sunday, saying that the risks of holding the Games amid the pandemic should continue to be carefully discussed.
Japan has extended a state of emergency in Tokyo and three other areas until the end of May, raising new questions about whether the Games should go ahead. Its vaccination rate is also the lowest among wealthy nations.
"This is not like 100 people like these tournaments," Nishikori said at the Italian Open in Rome on Monday.
"It's 10,000 people in a Village, playing a tournament," he added, referring to the Olympic Village where athletes will stay. "I don't think it's easy, especially (with) what's happening right now in Japan, it's not doing good."
Nishikori, who won bronze in the men's singles at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, added that there was still time before a decision had to be made but was wary about the potential for an outbreak in the Village, a high-rise apartment complex in downtown Tokyo.
"You can make a good bubble and maybe you can do it," he said. "There is some risk too. What happens if there's 100 cases in the Village? Or it can be thousands."
The 2020 Olympics were postponed by a year due to the pandemic and organisers, from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the Japanese government, have stood firm in saying that the global sporting showpiece would go ahead this summer under the mantra of a "safe and secure Games."
But some medical experts said this could be difficult to guarantee.
"We still don't have a good definition of 'safe Olympic Games' yet from Japan's government or the IOC," said Kentaro Iwata, a professor specialising in infectious diseases at Kobe University Hospital in western Japan.
"I don't know how to protect (foreign visitors and athletes) from bringing in novel variants from all over the world. It's an extremely difficult task to do that and kick off the Olympic Games in July," Iwata told Reuters.
Opposition lawmakers grilled Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Olympics Minister Tamayo Marukawa on Olympics safety measures in a parliamentary committee on Monday, including the number of hospital beds secured if needed to deal with Covid-19 patients from the Olympics, but Marukawa was unable to provide details.
Several test events with foreign athletes have been successfully held, most recently on Sunday, but a visit by International Olympic Committee head Thomas Bach scheduled for May 17-18 has been postponed until June. read more
Though Japan has been spared the worst ravages of the pandemic, more than 10,000 people have died. Tokyo recorded 925 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday.
-
Doosan scraps controversial Robotics奔康路上不停歇 自立自强谋发展居住环境变好了 居民心情更舒畅KTV to broadcast crossRuling bloc seeks tougher sentences for deepfake sex crimes'Progress can be made on North Korean nuclear dismantlement'Video games catch on in North Korea14 coolest Tesla features that put your regular car to shamePS5 Pro: It looks like a sketch of the design just leakedThree days were too short after 65 years of separation
下一篇:Discover Secret Swimming Holes and Hidden History in Crystal River, Florida
- ·Spate of defections show Kim Jong
- ·N. Korea smuggles tobacco products
- ·Dog trainers learned to love Zoom sessions. You should too.
- ·North Korea goes all out to boost tourism
- ·29 Dive Bars, Saloons, and Taverns Where the Vibe Is Unbeatable
- ·Tarot card readings on TikTok and Tumblr are reinventing the art form
- ·How to finger your partner vaginally or anally
- ·Families from South and North Koreas share dishes at reunions [PHOTOS]
- ·广东超一半的北运淡水鱼来自这里!全链发力打响“南海鱼”金字招牌
- ·Information Center on North Korea brings scholars from abroad
- ·Bagnaia on brink of first MotoGP title in Valencia
- ·Wordle today: Here's the August 8 Wordle answer and hints
- ·[Exclusive] Samsung unsure of Suga's future as brand ambassador: source
- ·Will there be an 'Eternals' sequel? Patton Oswalt seems to think so
- ·奔康路上不停歇 自立自强谋发展
- ·North Korea goes all out to boost tourism
- ·Klarna CEO reveals plan to reduce workforce by 50% and replace it with AI
- ·奔康路上不停歇 自立自强谋发展
- ·The most creative battery breakthroughs of 2021
- ·How to finger your partner vaginally or anally
- ·CPUs Don't Matter For 4K Gaming... Wrong!
- ·The 1619 Project's 'Born on the Water' is the book all American children need
- ·Almost 50% of single Koreans in 30s, 40s live with parents: study
- ·Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak dies at 91.
- ·Against All Odds: How Netflix Made It
- ·The 1619 Project's 'Born on the Water' is the book all American children need
- ·LG Display starts production of advanced OLED displays for gaming
- ·Dog trainers learned to love Zoom sessions. You should too.
- ·University of Alabama rush week begins on TikTok
- ·奔康路上不停歇 自立自强谋发展
- ·13 Unbelievable Underwater Wonders in Florida
- ·汉源县人大:夯实基层人大基础 增强人大工作活力
- ·North Korea highlights incentive system in agriculture
- ·Information Center on North Korea brings scholars from abroad
- ·How do you make safe, cheap nuclear reactors? Bury them a mile deep
- ·St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, Lamar Johnson, and the power of progressive prosecutors.