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The IOC's coordination commission chief John
Coates said last week additional medical personnel would be part
of the foreign Olympic delegations to support the medical
operations and the implementation of COVID-19 countermeasures at
the Games.
He did not say how many additional medical professionals would
be flown in for the Olympics or how many each team would need to
bring.
"The IOC is actively working with its Japanese partners in the
Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee and with the National Olympic
Committees on the details of this policy (of flying in
additional medical personnel)," the IOC told Reuters on Tuesday.
It said the policy would "be a further measure to ensure safe
and secure Olympic Games Tokyo 2020". It did not say when it
would be finalised or how many additional staff were needed.
Olympic organisers have said the Games, postponed from last
year, will go ahead by adopting strict safety measures,
including ensuring athletes do not mix with the Japanese public,
but there is growing opposition to the Olympics which start on
July 23.
Several opinion polls in Japan have shown the majority of the
public is opposed to holding the Olympics during a pandemic.
A growing number of investors in Japanese stocks also now
believe that cancelling the Games is better for the market,
intensifying the pressure on Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
Japan has recorded about 719,000 novel coronavirus cases. The
numbers are low compared with other countries but much of the
country remains under emergency curbs due to a strained medical
system and Japan's vaccination drive has been slow, with only 5%
of the population inoculated.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Ed Osmond)
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