He is the first athlete to test positive for COVID after reaching Tokyo for the Olympics. The positive COVID case has once again reignited talk of the games being in a puddle
An Ugandan Olympic player contracted the virus and now he had been restricted to enter Japan. This is the first case among athletes who are going to enter the country in the next five weeks before the games begin.
Uganda Team Member Tests Positive For COVID After Reaching The Tokyo Olympics 2021
The other team members of the Ugandan athlete had left on the early hours of Sunday morning through a chartered bus towards Osaka, which is going to be their host town. Even though the COVID-19 cases are increasing everyday in Japan.
During a recent interview with the NHK TV, Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is Japanese minister of Economic Policy on Sunday said, “The government was looking into what had happened with border controls.”
The athletes reached Tokyo late on Saturday night and were given the Astra Zeneca vaccine. The players were also requested to produce their negative RT-PCR tests before boarding their planes, according to a statement given by Cabinet Secretariat official to the Asahi newspaper.
The Ugandan player who had tested positive has not been yet identified. The NHK said that the athlete would be staying in a different government facility.
Questions Raised At Japan’s Decision To Conduct The Summer Olympic Games
The opposition have raised questions regarding holding the marquee event in a pandemic. On the other hand, the IOC, the Japanese government and the organizers are adamant that the games could be held safely.
Renho, one of the opposition leader, tweeted on twitter, “Let’s all wait a minute. Till now, nine people have arrived. And 100,000 people are expected to arrive at the Olympics. Now is not the time to say that this will be a moving experience for our children.”
All the foreign athletes are required to undergo a hard two-week quarantine but the same doesn’t apply to the Olympic organizers.
The organizers will take a decision on Monday that whether some fans should be to allowed to come the stadium and watch the games. The decision of stadiums packed with full capacity was called off.
Supporters or fans from other countries are not allowed to watch the games in the stadiums. During the pre-pandemic era, Japan was hoping to boost its tourism through Olympics.
The Australian Women’s Softball team is the first contingent to reach Japan for the marquee event. And, Ugandan contingent is the second one. The games are going to begin from July 23.
Uganda itself is seeing increasing cases of COVID-19 everyday. They have imposed strict lockdown in the country. A total of 590 people have died due to COVID-19. This number is quite less as the country is going through scarcity of testing.
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