A man walks by the wall of the National Stadium, where opening ceremony and many other events are scheduled for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Wednesday, June 2, 2021, in Tokyo.
Eugene Hoshiko / AP Photo
Japan declares COVID-19 state of emergency two weeks before Olympics
By Anthony Kuhn, NPR
Eugene Hoshiko / AP Photo
A man walks by the wall of the National Stadium, where opening ceremony and many other events are scheduled for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Wednesday, June 2, 2021, in Tokyo.
Japan has announced a new state of emergency that will remain in place for the duration of the Tokyo Olympics. It will begin next Monday and barring an improvement in the pandemic situation, last until Aug. 22.
At a press conference after the decision, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga apologized to citizens for having to impose a fresh state of emergency, just three weeks after an earlier emergency was lifted.
Since then, Tokyo has been under a looser, quasi-emergency, which has been unable to stop a fifth wave of infections from surging in the region.
Japanese residents have been unnerved by several cases of Olympic athletes arriving in Japan and testing positive for COVID-19, some carrying the delta variant and some of them made it past border controls.
The decision on whether to allow spectators will be made today by Olympics organizers. They’ll include International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach, who arrived in Tokyo just hours ahead of Suga’s announcement.
Overseas spectators are already barred from the games. The new emergency will make it less likely that domestic fans will be allowed either.
Japan lags behind other developed economies in vaccinations. After a brief surge in vaccinations last month, the pace has recently slackened, as vaccine supplies run low.
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