Coronavirus: Plane leaves Japan to collect Olympic flame, no 2020 delegates aboard

Staff members of Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways and runway crew wave as they see off the 'Tokyo 2020 Go' aircraft, before it departs for Greece, to transport the Olympic Flame back to Japan, at Haneda international airport in Tokyo, Japan March 18, 2020. [REUTERS/Issei Kato]

A plane sporting Tokyo 2020 livery departed Haneda International Airport on Wednesday bound for Athens to collect the Olympic flame, but there was no delegation from organisers on board due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

Tokyo 2020 said it chose not to send the high-level delegation, which was originally set to include organising committee president Yoshiro Mori and Olympics minister Seiko Hashimoto, to Greece due to the coronavirus.