Tokyo organizers and Japanese government take offensive on virus threat

By Navitalai Naivalurua

28/02/2020

[Photo: Stuff.co.nz]

Tokyo Olympic Games organisers and the Japanese government have gone on the offensive after a senior IOC member said the 2020 Games were being threatened by the spread of the coronavirus outbreak, with their fate probably decided in the next three months.

Tokyo organising committee chief executive Toshiro Muto stated during a press conference on Wednesday that the Olympic and Paralympic Games will go on as schedule.

Muto says the situation of the coronavirus infection is difficult to predict at this time.

The IOC has repeatedly said that the Tokyo Games will go ahead and this follows the advice of the World Health Organisation.

Australian IOC member John Coates pointed out that the IOC has an emergency fund of about US$1 billion to operate if any Olympic Games are called off.

Five deaths in Japan have been attributed to the deadly virus.

The viral outbreak that began in China has infected more than 80,000 people and killed more than 2700 globally. China has reported 2715 deaths among 78,064 cases on the mainland.

[Source: stuff.co.nz]