Representatives for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics are not ruling out canceling the games at the last minute due to rising COVID-19 transmission rates.
After 70 cases were linked to the Olympic games, Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto said officials might need to adjust their plans if the spread continues.
“We cannot predict what the epidemic will look like in the future. So as for what to do should there be any surge of positive cases, we’ll discuss accordingly if that happens,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday.
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Despite the International Olympics Committee imposing rigorous restrictions designed to curb the spread, the Olympic bubble system “is kind of broken,” one expert said.
“Visitors, athletes, journalists, delegates, of course, they are supposed to be within the bubble, but it’s not working well,” Tokyo public health expert Kenji Shibuya said in an interview with Reuters. “It’s obvious that the bubble system is kind of broken, so there seems to be some sort of interaction between guests and visitors and also local people.”
After the 2020 Olympic Games were postponed last year due to the global reach of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IOC imposed strict regulations to prevent the spread of the disease at the delayed games, including frequent testing and quarantining as needed.
Representatives for the Olympics previously dismissed the possibility of cancellation. In May, Dick Pound, the longest-serving member of the IOC, said the committee is prepared to handle the virus, with frequent testing at the location and quarantine protocols in place in the event of exposure.
“None of the folks involved in the planning and the execution of the games is considering cancellation,” he said at the time, as Japan experienced rising numbers of cases, adding, “That’s essentially off the table.”
Despite the United States previously cautioning against travel to Tokyo to attend the games, first lady Jill Biden will go to Japan to lead the U.S. delegation at the opening ceremony on Friday.
A handful of athletes have been forced to withdraw from the games since contracting the disease, including U.S. tennis star Coco Gauff.
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Japan, which has declared a state of emergency due to the disease’s spread, experienced 21,792 new cases of COVID-19 in the past week, and 101 deaths during that time period were attributed to the disease, according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 tracker.
The Olympics are set to begin on Friday.
