According to Peter Reinebo, CEO of the Swedish Olympic Committee, Tokyo could become a turning point in the global pandemic and Sweden has great confidence in the country’s handling of covid-19 during the upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to be held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.
During the launch of their appeal for the 2020 Olympic games, Peter Reinebo said that Tokyo 2020 and IOC (International Olympic Committee) have done a fantastic job in creating secure bubbles and a testing program that, according to him, feels very safe. He noted that the effort also has the greatest respect for the worries that the Japanese feel. “I think it could be that Tokyo becomes a turning point in the global pandemic – at least, that is a positive way to think about it. We need other things to gather around, and the Olympics is one such opportunity,” he said during an online press conference.
The Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games was postponed last year due to the pandemic, but the event still poses fear amongst many Japanese who oppose the Games taking place while the pandemic is still ongoing. “The IOC and Tokyo 2020 have been incredibly focused all the time to create the best conditions for the teams and I think they have succeeded very well in that. But even more important today is that the Olympic Games are carried out in a way so that they don’t become an even greater strain than what it already is for the Japanese people,” Peter Reinebo said.
“Therefore it will be a lot about bubbles and a lot of fences and those are the conditions we have to adhere to, and we have to have great respect for the worries that the Japanese people have,” he added.
In preparation for the Games, several countries have announced that their athletes and coaches will be vaccinated before the event. In February Denmark and the Philippines announced their vaccination plans and just recently the International Olympic Committee said that athletes and officials traveling to the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer will be offered doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine before arriving in Japan.
Source: Free Malaysia Today
