Organizers confirm first Covid-19 infection in Olympic Village
(adds Bach comments)
Tokyo, July 17 (EFE).- The Tokyo Olympics has detected the first Covid-19 infection in the Olympic Village, organizers said on Saturday, less than a week before the Games open in the Japanese capital.
The patient is a member of a foreign Olympic delegation currently in the village where thousands of athletes and officials will reside during the Games.
The other details of the person are shrouded in confidentiality due to privacy concerns.
It is the first confirmed positive case in the residential complex located on one of the artificial islands of Tokyo Bay.
The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, said that the first positive Covid-19 case detected among residents of the Olympic Village in Tokyo “poses no risk” to athletes.
As well as being the first recorded infection in the Olympic Village, 14 other new cases of Covid-19 among staff related to the Games were Saturday by the organization.
The IOC president said that the new cases “have been placed in isolation” according to the organizers’ protocol and “do not represent any risk to other participants (in the Games) or to the Japanese population,” at a press conference held at the end of a meeting of the executive of the international body in Tokyo.
The detection comes amid a resurgence of infections in Tokyo and six days before the opening ceremony.
The organizers are compiling information on the close contacts of the patients, Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto told reporters.
