The Tokyo Games have reported over 270 cases of COVID-19 among athletes and related personnel, but experts say the bubble system created to separate the sporting event from the Japanese capital appears to be working — so far.
Outside the Olympic venues, the city of Tokyo is seeing a surge in COVID-19 infections and reported a record 4,058 new cases on Saturday. Yet, among athletes and stakeholders of the Olympics, the virus positivity rate has been only 0.02% with over 400,000 tests conducted so far, organizers said on Sunday. Of the over 40,000 tests performed at the airport for Games participants, only 35 have been positive.
Before the Games kicked off, many scientists had warned that the Olympics could cause major clusters that could spread to the general population, a risk of holding a major international event during a pandemic. For now, the risk of cross-contamination seems contained, public health experts say, while warning that the situation could change suddenly given the threat from the highly infectious delta variant that’s spreading in Tokyo and around the world.