Tokyo Olympics: Resident in Games Village tests positive for COVID ahead of July 23 start

Ahead of the scheduled start of the highly-anticipated Tokyo Olympics, the organising committee informed on Saturday that the first resident of Games Village had tested positive for COVID. However, officials clarified that the infected individual was not an athlete.

One of the Tokyo officials and the president of the organizing committee, Seiko Hashimoto, said that the confirmed COVID positive case was detected on Friday. The organizers said that only a few details of the case would be revealed for confidentiality purposes. The person who found COVID positive in Olympic Village is games-concerned personnel and not a resident of Japan. Officials said that the person has already been placed under 14-days quarantine.

The CEO of Tokyo organizing committee said, "In the current situation, that positive cases arise is something we must assume is possible."

Further, the organizers informed that a total number of 44 people have been found positive under their jurisdiction since July 1. Nobody has been involved with the village people and mostly are contractors for Tokyo Olympics and games-concerned personnel. Out of 44, 12 people are non-resident of Japan. Organizers said that the athletes and staff who have been at Training camps are excluded from this list of COVID-positive persons in the village.

COVID situation in Tokyo

On Friday, the 1271 new COVID cases were reported in Tokyo. They were at 822 a week ago, and it marked the 27th straight day that cases were higher than a week previous.On Thursday, 1,308 new cases were reported which was the highest in six months.

After analyzing a spike in COVID cases, Japan has again revised its quarantine measures on July 15 by tightening measures for some arrivals and relaxing them for others. With the change, people travelling from Moscow will be required to spend six days in government-designated facilities as part of the mandatory 14-day quarantine period.

Those travelers will also need to undergo tests for COVID-19 upon arrival and on the third and sixth day of their stay. Only those who test negative will be allowed to self-isolate for the remainder of the two-week period in facilities of their choosing. As per reports, the changes will be applicable from Sunday in the country.

(IMAGE: AP/UNSPLASH/REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)