Japan is considering limiting spectators for the delayed Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics to 50% of venue capacity due to risks posed by the spread of COVID-19, the Sankei newspaper reported on Sunday.
However, at his regular weekly news conference, Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masa Takaya said the reports were "optimistic" and that nothing had been announced.
Japanese actress Satomi Ishihara performed the first 'torch kiss' handover of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics torch relay on Saturday during a rehearsal on the outskirts of the capital. The rehearsal comes amid worries the coronavirus outbreak could throw cold water on the Games. Japan, among the worst affected outside China where the virus is believed to have originated, reported its first death from the virus on Friday.
Japanese chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato declined to give details but said Japan would make every effort to protect the Games from possible hacking attempts.
The International Olympic Committee and the Japanese government agreed last month to postpone the Games because of the global coronavirus outbreak. The costs of rearranging the Games and who will pay them have yet to be clarified by either the IOC or the Japanese government.
Last month, the Tokyo 2020 Games were postponed to July 2021 due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
Construction delays at two key Olympic venues could force Tokyo Games organisers into a reshuffle of test event schedules, the organising committee said.
The Tokyo Olympics next July will be a "uniquely risky" event, demanding flexibility from organisers amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly if a vaccine has not been rolled out by then, medical experts say. Japan and the International Olympic Committee made the unprecedented decision last month to delay the Games for a year, as the world battles the virus that has infected 2.3 million people and killed more than 150,000 globally. But questions persist whether the Games can go ahead 15 months from now, as a vaccine could still be at least a year away, according to the most optimistic estimates.
The sweltering heat killed 57 people across Japan in the week from July 29 to Aug. 4, the Disaster Management Agency said on Tuesday.
Russia was banned from the world's top sporting events for four years on Monday, a period that includes the next summer and winter Olympics and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, for tampering with doping-related laboratory data. The World Anti-Doping Agency concluded that Moscow had tampered with laboratory data by planting fake evidence and deleting files linked to positive doping tests that could have helped identify drug cheats.
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