Volunteers for next summer's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics are overwhelmingly concerned about the transmission of novel coronavirus infection during the event, a survey by the government of Tokyo showed Wednesday.
In the online survey responded to by 13,480 City Cast volunteers, 75.1% also said they want the Japanese capital to create a safe environment for the volunteers to work in.
City Cast volunteers will offer transport and sightseeing information to spectators and tourists during the Olympics and Paralympics, which were postponed for one year due to the pandemic.
In response to a multiple-choice question about their concerns at the games, 79% of the volunteers said they are worried about the pandemic situation, followed by 49.3% who expressed concern about the impact the postponement will have on their motivation.
As for training for the games, 76.7% said they want to know how to protect themselves from the coronavirus and high heat during the summer sporting events, while 58.6% said they want to be prepared for emergency situations such as using defibrillators, the survey showed.
The metropolitan government said it will create a manual of measures against the coronavirus based on the findings of the survey by the time the volunteers start training in the spring.
City Cast volunteers are separate from the roughly 80,000 Field Cast volunteers, who are being recruited by the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee to work at venues and the athletes village.
The Tokyo Games were originally scheduled for this summer but were postponed in March due to the global health crisis.
The International Olympic Committee and the Japanese organizers have agreed to simplify the Tokyo Games to cut costs and prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
The Tokyo Olympics are slated to be held from July 23 to Aug. 8 next summer, followed by the Paralympics from Aug. 24 to Sept. 5.