The Tokyo Olympics have not yet started as the health bubble, set up around athletes and journalists, is already dying, reports Bernard Delattre, special envoy for Europe 1. New positive cases of Covid are detected daily and wreak havoc in Japan.
DECRYPTION
It is a real "soap bubble" which is "bursting" in Tokyo.
A few days before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games (July 23-August 8), new positive cases of Covid-19 are constantly detected by the Japanese authorities in the Tokyo capital.
Findings which show that the strict health bubble put in place around the competition, where no spectator will be allowed to attend, is not effective enough.
Bernard Delattre, special correspondent in Tokyo for Europe 1, reports that the device, supposed to avoid contact between the 60,000 foreigners who came for the Games and the local population, "does not work".
Repeated tangles
"Several athletes have tested positive for the virus and their supervisors have spread the Delta variant because they had not been isolated quickly enough as a contact case", explains the journalist. The imbroglios multiply, causing panic on the side of the Japanese, already very few to want these Olympics in the midst of a pandemic. "A member of a foreign delegation where cases of Covid had been detected has vanished into nature. He left his hotel without warning. We still have no news from him," continues Bernard Delattre.
In addition to athletes, journalists are also in the sights of the authorities.
“Foreign journalists barely disembarking in Tokyo and not all wearing masks have been seen rubbing shoulders with Japanese users at the airport. At the moment, thousands of special envoys who are supposed to be confined for three days live in hotels which do not have a restaurant, and where in addition they cannot be tested when this is imposed on them. They must go to town at the risk of infecting people there, "says the envoy. special.
The fear of a new epidemic wave
Because of these revelations, Japanese doctors fear a violent epidemic wave in a country in need of hospital staff and beds, and where only 15% of the inhabitants of Tokyo are vaccinated with two doses.
Recently, other cases have been detected near the Olympic Village. A Czech beach volleyball player tested positive for the virus on Monday, two days after one of the team's staff. Also, an American gymnast was diagnosed positive for Covid-19 in the American training camp, and another member of the team was placed in isolation. The identity of the gymnast was not disclosed by the official of the city of Inzai, east of Tokyo, but he clarified that it was a teenager, dismissing the superstar Simone Biles.
Likewise, the South African men's football team, which is due to meet France in a group match, faces a potential cluster: three people have tested positive for Covid, and 21 are in contact. The players concerned must train separately, according to the rules established by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). According to the official count made public by the organizers on Monday, 58 positive cases of Covid-19 have been detected since July 1, out of nearly 20,000 people (athletes, supervisors, journalists) who have arrived in the country.