Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 continue detailing of COVID-19 countermeasures

Tokyo 2020 officials said that "severe penalties" may have to be considered to ensure athletes and other participants comply with proposed COVID-19 countermeasures during the Olympics. Games Delivery Officer Hidemasa Nakamura said Friday at a roundtable to discuss safety protocols that you can't base everything on whether people are born good or bad and that other means of enforcement may be necessary, but gave no details. The Tokyo 2020 organising committee held the roundtable meeting with experts to discuss its COVID-19 countermeasures and receive advice regarding the updated Playbook that was released earlier in the week. The 60-page, second version of the "Playbooks" for athletes was released by the International Olympic Committee and the the local organizers. Versions for other non-athlete groups are to be released later. And a third version will come out in June, just weeks before the Olympics open on July 23. Athletes will also have to sign a promise they will follow the rules in Playbook. This will apply to athletes and participants with vaccines as well as those without vaccines. The rollout Wednesday of new rule books took place in the middle of a surging pandemic in Japan, with Tokyo, Osaka and several others areas under a third state of emergency. The death toll in Japan from COVID-19 has passed 10,000, low by global standards but poor compared with other places in Asia such as Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand and South Korea. Only 1% of the Japanese population has been vaccinated and that number will still be small when the Olympics open. So far, officials say Japanese athletes have not been vaccinated, which contrasts with many of the 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes entering Japan who — encouraged by the IOC — will have shots along with thousands of judges, officials, sponsors and media.. Tomoya Saito, one of the experts on the roundtable talks on Friday said that it is desirable to get inoculated if you can when asked whether all participants in the games should get vaccinated. Though vaccines are now available, the strategy for the Olympics is geared around holding the games in a "bubble" as if there were no vaccines.