Tokyo Olympic Organizers Will Disclose Coronavirus Safety ‘Playbook’ In Early February
The new Playbook is the updated rule book that the International Olympic Committee and Tokyo organizers are bound to follow. They are set to distribute it from next week to demonstrate how 15,400 Olympic and Paralympic athletes and tens of thousands of others will be able to safely enter Japan when the Olympics begins in the coming six months.
Organizers and the IOC are finally talking to the press about their planning and they hope to manage the reports that suggest that the Olympics will be canceled with Tokyo and much of Japan because these parts are still under the COVID-19 crisis. The number of positive cases is rising in Tokyo and other cities in Japan.
The rollout at Olympic headquarters in Switzerland is planned for Feb. 4 and Tokyo is set to roll out on February 5.
“We created four different scenarios, one that had travel restrictions, clusters — to one where the pandemic was nearly gone,” Lucia Montanarella, head of IOC media operations, explained Tuesday for a panel discussion held by the International Sports Press Association.
“The present scenario is very much like one of those that we’d created, with the pandemic still among us, and some countries being able to contain it, some not.”
The playbook contains the safe protocols about creating safe bubbles in Tokyo. Many changes may occur in the protocols as the July 23 opening comes closer day by day. The Paralympics are scheduled to open on Aug. 24.
Athletes and those traveling to Japan — coaches, judges, media, broadcasters, VIPS will have to maintain some self-quarantine period before they decide to come.
Everyone will be tested at the airport while they arrive in Japan for the game. There will be frequent testing for those staying in the Athletes Village alongside Tokyo Bay.
Montanarella said “we know that we are facing a huge challenge, this is to create a bubble for all athletes. One thing is to create a bubble for 200 athletes in just one sport, and a very different thing is to create a bubble for thousands of athletes of different sports.”
There is no discussion heard about the fans. Nobody has declared how many fans will be allowed into venues?
Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto said Tuesday that the decision will be announced: “by the spring.” If the number of fans has a limitation that means the cost will increase for Japan. The local organizing committee expected to gain $800 million from ticket sales. Any shortfall will have to be made up by Japanese government entities.
“If you are an athlete or a stakeholder, you will not be able to get on a plane until you provide a negative test,” Spence told Associated Press. “When you see the number of tests we are going to do (on site), that should reassure people.”
IOC President Thomas Bach, who has said vaccines are not “obligatory,” is still forcing all the candidates to get vaccinated.
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