Just over a week since the opening of the Tokyo Olympics, fraught with many difficulties, the record-high gold medal rush of Japanese athletes has lifted the spirits of a public that remains largely worried about staging the multinational sporting event amid a once-in-a-century pandemic.
Behind the festive mood, however, the number of daily coronavirus cases is rising at an alarming rate in Japan, where only about 28% of the eligible population were fully vaccinated as of Thursday, when the host city confirmed 3,865 new infections, hitting a record for the third straight day and the nationwide single-day count topped 10,000 for the first time.
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