Hotel reserved in Tokyo for athletes testing positive for coronavirus

 Steph Deschamps / April 11, 2021

A hotel with 300 rooms will be reserved for athletes, or a member of a delegation, tested positive for coronavirus, but with no symptoms or minor in any case, during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, reports Sunday the Japanese news agency Kyodo

The Olympics, postponed for one year because of the coronavirus crisis, must take place from July 23 to August 8 in the Japanese capital. The Paralympic Games are planned from August 24 to September 5.

The athletes or members of a delegation, tested positive, will have to be isolated and treated in the hotel 24 hours a day. And this in principle for a period of quarantine of ten days. According to the Kyodo agency, the organizing committee plans to reserve a hotel complex located a few kilometers from the athletes' village in the Harumi waterfront district of Tokyo.

In addition, up to 30 special vehicles should be ready to transport the contaminated athletes. According to the guidelines published in the organizers' playbooks in February, athletes should be tested at least every four days, but according to the Japanese agency, this testing frequency should be increased. A second version of the playbooks is expected in April. The upsurge of cases in the Japanese capital and its prefectures has prompted the Japanese government to tighten its measures to curb the spread of the epidemic. From Monday, bars and restaurants, for example, must be closed at 8 pm. Large events must be limited to 5,000 people. Three weeks ago, the government had lifted the state of emergency imposed in the capital and in three neighboring prefectures since the beginning of January, but it had to review its positions.