First athlete tests positive for Covid-19 in Tokyo’s Paralympic village

An athlete has tested positive for Covid-19 in the Paralympic village in Tokyo for the first time, it has been confirmed.

On the day the Games begin, officials said nine other new cases had also been detected among people working at the Games outside the village and that the athlete, whose identity has not been revealed, had been moved to an isolation facility.

Tokyo, which is under a state of emergency, as a whole recorded 4,220 new cases and nine deaths from coronavirus on Tuesday.

There have been multiple positive cases among Paralympic athletes recorded abroad and in training camps in Japan before the Games, but this case is the first to have breached the village and what organisers have consistently termed the “strict protocols” protecting athletes and others inside the village.

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Spokesman Masa Takaya confirmed the athlete will now enter 14 days of quarantine.

“From the July 1st to August 22nd there were nearly 767,000 tests conducted and the positivity, the number of positive cases, was 236 – which means the positivity rate is remaining 0.03 per cent,” Takaya said. “Concerning the latest number of daily confirmed cases, there were five cases found among those resident in Japan and there were another five cases found among those non-resident in Japan.”

Although spectators have been banned from the Games, Takaya said plans were still continuing to allow schoolchildren to attend some Paralympic events.

“There will be full and thorough countermeasures being implemented to arrange for the schoolchildren to be able to watch the Games, and of course observations of the children and guardians will be conducted prior to visiting, and of course in the transportation of the children and when they’re watching the Games there will be strict guidelines for them to follow.” – Guardian