The rapidly growing series of infections demonstrates how difficult it is to organize one of the world’s biggest sporting events during a global pandemic.
German athletes arrived at the airport in Tokyo on July 1.
Officials will be in a difficult position during the Olympics.
This year’s Olympics is missing some famous names.
The problem that causes the most headaches is athletes testing positive for nCoV after they arrived in Japan.
On July 18, the British Olympic Association confirmed that 6 athletes and two staff members from this country’s athletics team became F1 of a positive case of nCoV after arriving in Tokyo on July 16.
According to data from the organizing committee, a total of 55 people related to the Olympics, including officials and contractors, tested positive for nCoV since July 1.
Bradley Beal, a member of the American basketball team, suddenly announced that he could not play because he tested positive for nCoV during training camp.
Tokyo Olympic organizers have been adjusting rules almost daily to try to resolve the problems.
The US women’s gymnastics team had a member who initially tested positive but then tested negative, leading to the conclusion that the first result was a false positive.
Spectators are banned from most matches, while athletes are tested every day.
`Olympic participants are the most tightly controlled people in the world,` said IOC Olympic Executive Director Pierre Ducrey.
Athletes wait for Covid-19 test results when arriving in Japan this month.
However, the Olympics in Tokyo is not an isolated `bubble` like the one the NBA built last year.
The NBA’s `bubble` also depends on widespread pre-arrival testing and quarantining team members in private rooms for two days until test results are available.
Those precautions are necessary before highly effective vaccines can be developed, but Olympic organizers do not require athletes to be vaccinated.
The incubation period of nCoV is up to 14 days, meaning athletes can test negative multiple times before suddenly testing positive right before or during competition.
`South African team members are encouraged to quarantine for two weeks before departure, monitor their health daily, report any symptoms and have two negative PCR tests within 96 hours before departure
The important issue for the organizers in Tokyo is that they are required to hold some competitions indoors.
The organizers in Tokyo decided that athletes identified as F1 will be subject to daily PCR tests and must be quarantined in private rooms at all times, including when eating meals.
Vaccines have been shown to be very effective at preventing death and serious illness, but they do not completely prevent infection.
Jonathan Finnoff, chief medical officer of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, said in a recent interview that organizers will likely consider many factors when contact tracing and deciding who will be excluded.
