Tokyo to unveil rule book for beating virus

FILE PHOTO: A man wears a protective mask amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in front of the giant Olympic rings in Tokyo, Japan, January 13, 2021. [REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo]

Remember the word: Playbook.

This is the rule book that the IOC and Tokyo organisers are set to roll out next week to explain how 15,400 Olympic and Paralympic athletes and tens of thousands of others will try to safely enter Japan when the Olympics open in just under six months.

Organisers and the International Olympic Committee are finally going public with their planning, hoping to push back against reports the Olympics will be cancelled with Tokyo and much of Japan still under a state of emergency with Covid-19 cases rising.

The rollout at Olympic headquarters in Switzerland is planned for February 4, with Tokyo likely to present on February 5.

“We created four different scenarios, one that had travel restrictions, clusters — to one where the pandemic was nearly gone,” Lucia Montanarella, head of IOC media operations, explained on Tuesday for a panel discussion held by the International Sports Press Association.

People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk on the Odaiba waterfront as Olympic rings is seen in the background in Tokyo, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

“The present scenario is very much like one of those that we’d created, with the pandemic still among us, and some countries being able to contain it, some not.”

The playbook will be about creating safe bubbles in Tokyo, and will be updated with changing protocols as the July 23 opening gets closer. The Paralympics are schedule to open on August 24.