TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th April, 2020) It will be difficult for Tokyo's 2021 Olympic Games to go ahead without an effective coronavirus vaccine even if the rate of infection is whittled down in Japan, head of the national medical association� Yoshitake Yokokura said Tuesday.
"My opinion is that it will be hard to host them unless an effective vaccine is developed," Yokokura said at a briefing in Tokyo, according to Kyodo news agency.
Despite the rate of infections in Japan decelerating in the past days, Yokokura, who heads the Japan Medical Association, explained that going ahead with the Olympics will depend on the epidemiological situation around the world.
"The global state of infections at that particular time will be a key issue. It will be difficult even if the situation in Japan has become better if infections continue to spread," Yokokura said according to the agency.
Japan's Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee late last month were forced to postpone the much-anticipated Olympic Games from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Games' official dates are now scheduled for late July to early August in the Japanese capital.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this month declared a state of emergency, first in six provinces then across the country, due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak which has, as of Tuesday, infected over 13,500 people and killed 385 with nearly 2,000 recovering.
