Tokyo (AFP)
The Olympic torch relay for the Tokyo Olympics will not be authorized on public roads throughout the Osaka department (western Japan) due to the worsening health situation, the local governor announced on Wednesday.
"Today, we are calling on residents of the entire Osaka department to refrain from any non-essential and urgent outing, and therefore we will cancel the torch relay on the public highway," the governor said. Hirofumi Yoshimura.
The organizers of the Olympics said in the evening that they accepted Mr. Yoshimura's proposal to move this portion of the relay, which was to cross the department of Osaka on April 13 and 14, in a park that will be closed to the public.
Tokyo-2020 General Manager Toshiro Muto stressed the importance of the relay taking place anyway, stating that the Games "are taking place in Tokyo, but the fact that the flame passes across the country shows that it is the Olympic Games of the Entire Japan ".
The organizing committee added in a statement that it would put in place "all the necessary measures to ensure a safe environment for the torchbearers who wish to run" and that "no spectators" would be admitted during these two days.
The Olympic torch relay started on March 25 in Fukushima (northeastern Japan).
Observing that the event had already provoked crowds in the other departments where he passed, Mr. Yoshimura judged that it would be "inappropriate" to let him cross that of Osaka.
"The torch relay attracts crowds even if we take measures, because people want to see it," he said.
The governor had already estimated last Friday that the relay should not take place on the public road in the city of Osaka, the third most populous in Japan, because of the worrying increase in Covid-19 cases.
A daily record of new infections (878 cases) was recorded Wednesday for the department of Osaka, erasing a previous local record reached the day before and clearly exceeding the level of new infections in Tokyo (555 cases Wednesday), also in full rise .
Local authorities in Osaka declared a medical emergency on Wednesday, and countermeasures were being considered in Tokyo as well.
Just over a hundred days before the Olympics, which are due to be held July 23 to August 8 in Tokyo after being postponed for a year due to the pandemic, organizers are facing a growing number of difficulties.
On Tuesday, a water polo test event scheduled for this week was postponed due to restrictions on access to Japan for foreign visitors and doubts remain about the possibility of hosting the remaining 17 test events for the Olympics.
© 2021 AFP