MOSCOW – The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee on Wednesday published the first list of regulations, also known as playbooks, on responsibilities and safety measures against Covid-19 during the Summer Olympic Games in Japan.
"The series of playbooks provide a framework of basic principles that each key stakeholder group will follow before they travel to Japan, when entering Japan, during their time at the Games and when leaving the Games," the IOC statement read.
It added that the playbooks will provide “direction and set parameters that will enable people and organizations to advance their planning at this stage."
"These playbooks are the official, centralized source of information for the Olympic and Paralympic Games stakeholders, and the first versions will be updated with more detail over the coming months, as the global situation relating to Covid-19 becomes clearer ahead of the Games," it said.
Among the guidelines, athletes are required to use smartphone applications to constantly report about their health condition, to minimize contacts with other people excluding handshakes and keeping a distance of two meters and to keep track of their actions.
The playbooks also provides that 72 hours prior to their travel to Japan, all athletes will have to provide an official certificate stating a negative result of their tests for the novel coronavirus. However, there is no requirement for all athletes to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
"The playbooks also outline a typical journey for each stakeholder group, beginning with measures starting 14 days before arriving in Japan, testing before departure and upon arrival in the country, and the use of smartphone applications to report health and support contact tracing during Games time," the statement read. "Measures will also be in place to identify, isolate and treat any potential positive cases."
In the Athletes and Team Officials playbook, the IOC said stakeholder groups will learn more about their time in the Olympic and Paralympic Village.
“There they will be subjected to strict control measures to ensure their safety,” it said. "This will include limiting the amount of time athletes and support staff stay in the Village, restrictions on socializing outside the Village, their movement between official Games venues, and a Covid-19 screening system that will see athletes and support staff screened during the Games."
In March 2020, the IOC and the IPC announced a decision to postpone for one year the 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Japan due to the continuous Covid-19 spread.
Yoshiro Mori, the head of the Tokyo-2020 Olympics Local Organizing Committee, said in the same month that the Summer Olympic Games would start on July 23 and the Summer Paralympic Games would begin on August 24, 2021.
The epidemiological situation in Japan began deteriorating last November, gaining momentum in December and January.
As of today, Japan is ranked 37th in the world in terms of reported Covid-19 cases, which currently stand at 391,626 with 5,790 deaths and 339,370 recoveries.
On January 7, the Japanese government imposed a state of emergency in the 37.4 million metropolitan area of Greater Tokyo, which includes the prefectures of Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba, due to the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus. The state of emergency was declared to be in force through February 7. (TASS)
