Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa delivered another wake-up call on Friday when she confirmed that a member of the Ugandan team who tested positive for the coronavirus upon entry to Japan last week was infected with the Delta variant.
Later in the day a second Ugandan also tested positive for the Delta variant, Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura said.
Despite extensive testing before and upon entry, cases like these seem certain to happen with 11,000 Olympic athletes and 4,400 Paralympic athletes entering Tokyo, along with tens of thousands of added staff, coaches, judges, and IOC and sports federations officials.
The first Ugandan member, reportedly a coach, was detected positive last Saturday at the Narita airport near Tokyo and quarantined. But the Japanese authorities allowed the remainder of the nine-person team to travel more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) on a chartered bus to their pre-game camp in Izumisano, in the western prefecture of Osaka.
“They all carried certificates showing their negative test results,” Izumisano Mayor Hiroyasu Chiyomatsu said. “We never imagined they could be infected.”
The team members were quarantining at a hotel there.
“The Olympic organizing committee is very much interested in finding out more from this (Uganda) example,” Hashimoto said. “We will pay detailed attention to get information as much as possible from this experience,” with operations refined accordingly.
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