Opinion | Coronavirus: Tokyo 2020 needs to be cancelled or postponed immediately
- A high-ranking organising committee official testing positive for Covid-19 is another wake-up call for the IOC
- There is no way Japan can ensure health and safety during the Olympics given the gravity of the coronavirus outbreak
It is a decision no one wants to make and no one wants to hear, but it is now imperative.
There is no road map for a large-scale global pandemic like this. Sars and Mers were both relatively contained compared to Covid-19, and it never felt as if cases were so out of control that nations impacted could not handle the burden.
Coronavirus is an entirely different beast. Each hour our news cycles are flooded with stories about the virus, new cases, incoming travellers, outgoing travellers, unknown clusters in places that previously had no reported infections. This virus is out of control and it will be a while before we as a planet and species feel like we are back at the steering wheel.
Tokyo 2020 organising committee member Kozo Tashima, who is the deputy head of the executive committee, announced he had tested positive for Covid-19. The 62-year-old said his test result was confirmed on Tuesday and he had travelled to Europe and the US.
