On Sunday, Tokyo Olympic organizers revealed that two athletes in the Olympic village tested positive for COVID-19 and had been confined in their dormitories.
This comes after a non-athlete in the village tested positive for coronavirus earlier in the day on Saturday, and these are the first confirmed cases among athletes.
Masa Takaya, a spokesperson for Tokyo 2020, said the two athletes are from the same country and compete in the same sport, and they were isolated as soon as their tests came back positive. There were no names or other identifying information offered.
According to his social media post late Saturday, Ryu Seung-min, the head of the South Korean table tennis association and a former Olympic champion, tested positive for COVID-19 upon his arrival at Narita International Airport.
Organizers said hand sanitizer, alcohol disinfecting sheets, and medicated hand soap will be handed at the press conference as precautions against COVID-19 and Japan’s extreme summer heat.
Athletes are also required to keep social distance and wear masks, and lounges with air conditioning, water, and ice baths are available to them. Additional remedies were also given for certain sports, such as a water supply for cycling road events and a horse cooling station for equestrian events. Salt tablets and cooling goods will be provided to volunteers as well.
During the Games, the organizing committee will establish a weather information center at Harumi Triton Headquarters to deal with extreme weather conditions.
Temperature, humidity, wind speed, and heat index will be monitored in real time at all indoor and outdoor locations, and urgent notifications will be given in the event of oncoming typhoons or thunderstorms.
The Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed by a year owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, will begin five days from now on July 23.