Since the pandemic broke, the most awaited Summer Olympics of 2020 got postponed and was in a state of oscillation between cancellation and rescheduling.
But it is now very evident that despite the host city Tokyo being in a state of emergency, the International Olympics Committee is certainly going to conduct it, and Japan’s new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is also firm that the event will be hosted in Tokyo.
The Government of Japan was reported by the PTI to have “mobilised military doctors and nurses to give shots to elderly people in Tokyo and Osaka on Monday as the government desperately tries to accelerate its vaccination rollout and curb coronavirus infections just two months before hosting the Olympics.” The PM is determined to complete the vaccination for the elderly in the country (36 million senior citizens) by the end of July.
“At the two mass inoculation centres staffed by Japan’s Self-Defence Forces, the aim is to inoculate up to 10,000 people per day in Tokyo and another 5,000 per day in Osaka for the next three months,” PTI reported.
The Summer Olympics is set to start in July 23 and will end on August 8, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. John Coates, Vice President of the International Olympics Committee confirmed that the games will go on despite the host city is in emergency.
“The advice we have from the (World Health Organization) and all other scientific and medical advice that we have, is that — all the measures we have outlined, all of those measures that we are undertaking, are satisfactory and will ensure a safe and secure Games in terms of health,” Coates said. “And that’s the case whether there is a state of emergency or not.” Coates said.
But the citizens of Japan are not rooting for the event’s commencement this year, according to opinion polls. If the current host of the 2020 Summer Olympics Tokyo, Japan backs out as it was rumoured to be, the State of Florida would be happy to host the event, said Florida’s chief financial officer in January 2021.
This is the second time Japan is hosting the Summer Olympics and it is not going to give away this opportunity. 205 nations (including India), 11,091 athletes are expected to participate in the Olympics which will have 339 event in 33 sports. The winter Olympics will be held in Beijing in 2022, and the next Summer Olympics is set to be hosted by Paris in 2024.