TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2021) The Olympic competitions in Japan's Fukushima will be held without spectators, even though the prefecture was among the four where it was supposed to be allowed, the organizing committee said on Saturday.
On Thursday, the Japanese government declared a state of emergency in Tokyo from July 12 to August 22 amid a spike in COVID-19 cases. As a result, it was decided to conduct the Olympic competitions without fans in Tokyo and the neighboring prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba. At the same time, the prefectures of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Miyagi, and Shizuoka were allowed to fill half of the available seats, but not more than 10,000 each.
"The five-way meeting on Thursday decided to let spectators in at the competitions in the Fukushima prefecture. However, today, the prefecture decided to hold the competitions without spectators in light of the epidemiological situation," organizing committee spokesperson Masa Takaya said, adding that the ticket holders will be automatically reimbursed.
The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, initially scheduled for 2020, were postponed for a year due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The Games are now set to run from July 23 until August 8 with harsh restrictions put in place to ensure safety.
