Discover the first case of COVID-19 in Olympic Village

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Lake Korky Semashko – NBC News

COVID-19 has penetrated the Olympic Village in Tokyo.

A day after IOC president Thomas Bach insisted there was “no risk” of athletes infecting anyone outside Tokyo’s closed section, the head of the organizing committee confirmed on Saturday that the person staying there had tested positive for the disease.

Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto said at a press conference that the infected person He was not an athlete, but a person who was involved in organizing games. He did not want to specify the individual’s nationality, but acknowledged that disclosure would not reassure his nervous citizens.

“I understand there are still a lot of worrying factors,” Hashimoto said. “The organizers should try to get people to understand that These games are safe.added.

‘We spare no effort’he added.

With surveys showing that Many Japanese oppose sports competitions Amid a pandemic, “Safe and Safe” has become the mantra of Japanese government and International Olympic Committee officials striving to reassure the country that a sudden influx of athletes and visitors from abroad will not turn the Games into an event.

[La hija de una leyenda del rock irá a los Juegos Olímpicos de Tokio: Jessica Springsteen debutará con el equipo ecuestre de EE.UU.]

Most of the 11,000 athletes who compete in the Games who It begins on July 23 and ends on August 8, They will reside in the 109-acre coastal area.

Most of them are still on their way to Japan, but already about 40 people Related to games – Japanese and foreign – tested positive for COVID-19, Olympic officials said.

The security team at the entrance to the Olympic Village, where the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed six days before the Games kicked off.Kim Kyung-hoon/Reuters

An alarming rise in novel coronavirus cases prompted Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to declare a state of emergency in Tokyo last week. As a result, there will be no fans cheering the athletes, and the more famous Olympic events, such as the opening and closing ceremonies, will likely lack the pomp and festivity of the previous Games.

Meanwhile, the Ugandan Olympic team has been getting international attention for all the wrong reasons.

two members Ugandan Olympic delegation, a 20-year-old athlete and 50-year-old coach, has become The first competitors to test positive results Last month when they arrived in Tokyo they were prevented from moving forward.

Perhaps the most embarrassing thing for both Ugandan and Japanese customs officials tasked with preventing the spread of the epidemic is that The rest of the team was allowed to travel to the training ground near Osaka, despite his close contact with his injured comrades.

Luego andOn Friday, 20-year-old Ugandan weightlifter Julius Siketoliko, who did not get a place in the team, fHe was reported missing after failing to take a COVID-19 test At the training ground, located near Osaka, in Izumisano.

“They are still looking for this athlete,” Hashimoto said Saturday.

Asked if Sekitoliko’s days as an Olympic competitor are over, Hashimoto said: “I have not received any reports that no one has found him, but unless we listen to his explanation, it is difficult for us to decide what action to take.”

A social distancing poster in front of a police officer before International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach arrives at Haneda Airport ahead of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, on July 8, 2021. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

Beatrice Ayekoru, who heads the Ugandan delegation, said Sikitoliko and her coach will return to Uganda on Tuesday. According to her, He left a note saying he wanted to stay in Japan and find work.

But during team meetings in Uganda and Japan, Ayekoru told the Japan Times that it was repeatedly emphasized “the need to respect Japanese immigration rules and not choose to leave the camp without permission.”

Uganda has competed in the Olympic Games since 1956 and won a total of seven medals: two gold, three silver and one bronze.

Four of the medals won by Uganda were boxing. The others were athletics. The last time a Ugandan won a medal was at the 2012 Olympics in London, when long-distance runner Stephen Kibroch won the marathon and the gold medal.

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