TOKYO (Reuters) – Tokyo has no Plan B for this year’s Summer Olympics despite alarm over the spread of the coronavirus in Japan and elsewhere with under five months before the event, a senior official said on Friday.
“There will not be one bit of change in holding the Games as planned,” Katsura Enyo, deputy director general of the Tokyo 2020 Preparation Bureau at the city government, told Reuters.
Having prepared for years and invested some $12 billion, Japan is eager to quell fears the Games might be called off, postponed or moved to a different location due to the virus.
Though on the decline in China where it originated, the flu-like disease is moving fast around the world, including more than 200 cases and five deaths in Japan.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president and former fencing champion Thomas Bach bolstered Tokyo’s stance on Thursday, saying his organization was “fully committed” to holding the Olympics on schedule.
In a telephone interview, Enyo said organizers were “facing up to” the coronavirus – but it would not derail the July 24-Aug. 9 event. “We are not even thinking of when or in what contingency we might decide things. There is no thought of change at all in my mind,” she said.
