Tokyo Olympics | Virus risk unavoidable in sports, says WHO director general

The head of the World Health Organization told sports officials on Wednesday that the Tokyo Olympics should not be judged by the tally of COVID-19 cases because it is impossible to eliminate the risk, after the event resumed in Japan.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a speech at an International Olympic Committee meeting that how the infection is controlled matters most.

“The mark of success is ensuring that any case is identified, isolated, traced and taken care of as soon as possible and further transmission is interrupted,” he said.

The number of COVID-19 cases linked to the Games in Japan this month stood at 79 on Wednesday, with more international athletes testing positive at home and unable to travel.

“The mark of success in the coming fortnight is not zero cases,” Tedros said, noting athletes already testing positive in Japan, at Tokyo Bay’s Athlete Village, where most of the 11,000 competitors will live.

Teammates classified as close contacts of infected athletes can continue training and preparing for events under isolation and additional surveillance.

Health experts in Japan have warned the Olympics to become a “super-spreader” event, bringing in thousands of athletes, officials and workers during a local emergency.

“There is no risk in life,” said Tedros, who began his keynote address minutes after the first softball game in Fukushima, adding that Japan is “giving courage to the whole world.”

The WHO leader had a more important message about sharing vaccines more fairly in the world and a challenge to the leaders of rich countries.

“The pandemic is a test and the world is failing,” Tedros said, predicting more than 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 worldwide before the Olympic flame is extinguished in Tokyo on August 8.

It was a “terrible injustice”, he said, given that 75% of the vaccine shots given so far globally were in only 10 countries.

Tedros warned anyone who believed the pandemic was over because it was under control in his part of the world “a fool’s paradise”.

The world needs to produce 11 billion doses next year and WHO wants governments to help reach the goal of immunizing 70% of people in every country by the middle of next year.

“The pandemic will end when the world wants to end it,” Tedros said. “It’s in our hands.”