August 6, 2021 | By Bronwen Largier
Scenes of sporting triumph and devastation have been beamed to Australia from Japan’s largest city since July 23, when the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics kicked off despite the host city being under a state of emergency due to rising COVID-19 cases.
So how have things progressed since the Olympics began?
Despite the stands at the Games being conspicuously empty, Tokyo continues to struggle with rising COVID-19 cases amongst its resident population, with 5,042 daily cases in its last reporting period. This represents a continued significant rise – 1,359 cases were reported on the day the Olympics began and the rolling 7-day daily average was 1,386 cases. The rolling average is now 3,646.9.
Within the Olympics community – which includes athletes, officials, Olympics employees, third party contractors, media and “Games-concerned personnel” which seems to be a catch-all for whoever is left, including those connected to the International Olympic Committee – there have been 353 cases of COVID-19 detected since July 1, across all these groups, including 28 yesterday.