Tokyo:
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics, postponed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, will be held under unprecedented conditions and tight quarantine rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections.
Yet a number of cases have emerged involving athletes and other people involved with the Games.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike were set to meet on Thursday, the metropolitan government said, as COVID-19 cases hit a six-month high in the host city.
It is not clear what Bach and Koike will discuss at Thursday's meeting, which comes a day after Bach met Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
Just over a week before the July 23 opening ceremony, Tokyo reported 1,149 COVID-19 cases, its highest daily tally since late January.
Postponed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Games have little public support in Japan amid fears about the spread of the virus.
Tokyo entered its fourth state of emergency earlier this week amid a rebound in COVID-19 cases that pushed Games organisers to ban spectators from nearly all venues.
Bach said on Wednesday that strict coronavirus measures were in place, with high vaccination rates among participants, limited mobility for athletes and support staff, spectators banned and continuous testing.
"This message has to get across. The Japanese people have to gain confidence in this," he said.
JUNE 20 – A coach with Uganda's squad tests positive on arrival at Narita airport and is quarantined at a government-designated facility. The rest of the team heads by bus for their host city, Izumisano near Osaka in western Japan. JUNE 23 – A Ugandan athlete tests positive, Izumisano officials said.
JULY 4 – A member of Serbia's Olympic rowing team tests positive on arrival. The other four team members are isolated as close contacts. JULY 9 – One Lithuanian and one Israeli athlete test positive, according to reports. Later reports say the Lithuanian's results were unclear and subsequently tested negative.
JULY 14 – A masseur for the Russian women's rugby sevens team tests positive, forcing the team into isolation for two days, the RIA news agency reports. Officials in Munakata, southwestern Japan, confirmed that one staff member was hospitalised and said none of the team members could be considered close contacts. – The refugee Olympic team has delayed its arrival in Japan following a positive case with a team official in Doha. The infected official is in quarantine without symptoms and 26 of the 29 refugees will remain in their Doha training camp.
– Seven staff at a hotel in Hamamatsu, central Japan, where dozens of Brazilian athletes are staying have tested positive, a city official said. – Twenty-one members of the South African rugby team are in isolation after they are believed to have been in close contact with a case on their flight.
JULY 15 – Eight athletes from the Kenya women's rugby team were classified as close contacts after a positive coronavirus case was found on their flight to Tokyo, said an official with the southwestern city of Kurume, where they were set to hold a training camp. – An Olympic athlete under a 14-day quarantine period tested positive for the virus, but had not yet moved to the Olympic Village, the organising committee's website reported, without giving further details. They said one member of the Games personnel and four Tokyo 2020 contractors had also tested positive.