Tokyo (AFP)

A 28-year-old sumo wrestler died in Japan on Wednesday after contracting the new coronavirus, the first victim of Covid-19 disease in this traditional Japanese sport, the National Sumo Association announced.

Shobushi, a lower-ranking wrestler from the Takadagawa team in Tokyo, died Wednesday morning after battling the disease for more than a month.

He started having a fever on April 4-5 but failed to contact local health services, the line being kept busy, the sumo association said in a statement.

He was refused by several hospitals before being finally admitted to an establishment in the capital on April 8 when he began to spit blood, the Association added.

A first test was negative but it tested positive for the new coronavirus on April 10 after being transferred to another hospital which placed him in intensive care on April 19.

"We can't find words when we think of the broken hearts of his family members," said the head of the Japanese Sumo Association, who calls himself Hakkaku.

"It must have been so painful to fight the disease for more than a month but, as a sumo wrestler, he persevered and endured fighting until the end," added Hakkaku.

"We now wish him to be at peace," he added, thanking the caregivers.

Some cases of Covid-19 disease have appeared among the lower grades and in a stable master of the very closed world of this sport where wrestlers happily exceed 100 kilos.

Being overweight is one of the risk factors for the disease.

The association had announced in early May the cancellation of the next tournament and its plan to organize the next one behind closed doors because of the epidemic.

The next "basho" of the ancient Japanese sport, already postponed by two weeks due to the pandemic, was due to start on May 24.

Normally there are six tournaments per year.

In March, the Osaka basho took place without spectators, but was broadcast live on television. The wrestlers had to take their temperature twice a day and had to sprain several rituals to limit the spread of the virus.

The wrestlers live in a hierarchical community within stables or brotherhoods, "heya" in Japanese, and the non-titular ones sleep in common rooms on tatami mats.

Japan, with a population of around 126 million and which registered its first case in mid-January, has reported around 16,000 cases since the start of the epidemic, with 668 confirmed deaths, far less than the figures published by number of other countries.

© 2020 AFP