TOKYO (AP) – The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Village records the first COVID-19 positive from a resident, organizers announced Saturday. The infected person is not one of the athletes who will participate in the competitions from July 23, they added.
Officials, including the president of the organizing committee, Seiko Hashimoto, confirmed the contagion and said it was registered on Friday. For confidentiality reasons, they can only offer a vague description of the case and a few details, they said.
“In the current situation, having positive cases appear is something that we must assume is possible,” said Toshiro Muto, executive director of the organizing committee.
The person, who was identified as “personnel related to the Games” and as a non-resident of Japan, will be in quarantine for 14 days.
The Olympic Village, located in Tokyo Bay, will host some 11,000 athletes during the Games, as well as thousands more as team members.
The president of the IOC, Thomas Bach, assured this week that there was “zero” risk of the athletes staying in the village infecting other residents or the Japanese.
According to the organizers, between July 1 and Saturday, 45 people under their “jurisdiction” have tested positive for the coronavirus. Only one is a resident of the Olympic village and most are identified as “contractors” for Tokyo 2020 and “personnel related to the Games”. On the list are an athlete, who tested positive on July 14, and three media workers.
Of the 45, only 12 are “non-residents of Japan.”
Athletes and coaches who have been concentrated outside of Tokyo are excluded from the list and from the count, organizers noted.
Those responsible for the Olympic event could not offer an estimate of the number of residents occupying the Village on Saturday.
Japan reported 1,410 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, 950 more than a week ago, on the 28th consecutive day with a higher count than the previous week. The data also represents the record of infections in a single day since the 1,485 registered on January 21.
