Tokyo: A day after an official at the Tokyo Olympics tested positive for COVID-19, two athletes caught the deadly virus at the Olympic Village, the officials confirmed said on Sunday. However, the names and nationalities of the athletes have been kept confidential.
The Tokyo Olympics organizers stated for confidentiality purposes they can only offer a vague description and few details. “In the current situation, that positive cases arise is something we must assume is possible,” said Toshiro Muto, the CEO of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee.
The athletes started arriving in the Japanese capital earlier this week and the first Indian contingent left for the Olympics on Saturday night. All the athletes participating in the Games will be residing at the Olympic village.
Meanwhile, the official who tested positive on Saturday has been identified as Ryu Seung-min – a South Korean member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Seung-min, who is also the president of the Korea Table Tennis Association (KTTA).
Seung-min took to Instagram to announce that he had been diagnosed with COVID-19 after landing at Narita International Airport, just outside Tokyo. “I am completely asymptomatic, which probably has to do with the fact that I am vaccinated,” Ryu wrote.
“I apologise to the Organising Committee, our hosts here in Japan, and the IOC for the inconvenience I have caused.”
Tokyo’s new COVID-19 cases on Saturday were reported at 1,410. They were 950 one week ago, and it marks the 28th straight day that cases were higher than a week previous. It was the highest single day since 1,485 on January 21.
IOC president Thomas Bach has asked the Japanese to support the Olympics. “We are very well aware of the skepticism, obviously that a number of people have here in Japan,” Bach had said in his first large briefing of the Olympics at the main press center in Tokyo.
“My appeal to the Japanese people is to welcome these athletes,” he added.
