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IOC Member: 2020 Tokyo Olympics Delayed
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
USA Today reported on Monday that International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Dick Pound told the newspaper that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are postponed. Pound reportedly said that the Olympics will be delayed "likely to 2021," and the IOC will decide the details within the next four weeks.
Pound said, "The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.” Pound added that the delay process will "come in stages" as the IOC responds to the "immense" repercussions of the delay.
The IOC announced on Sunday that it has given itself a four-week deadline to decide on the next step for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but added that cancellation is "not an agenda." The committee is instead considering postponement from a few months to a year, or a "scaled-down" version of the Games. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said during a Diet committee session on Monday that the Olympics may have to be postponed if the situation makes it difficult to hold the Games.
The first reported cases of COVID-19 were in Wuhan, China in December, and then the disease began to spread in varying rates and intensities across many parts of the globe through incubation in human hosts. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a world health emergency on January 30, and announced on March 11 that it is classifying the outbreak as a pandemic. As of Sunday, the WHO reported that there are 294,110 infected individuals worldwide. 12,944 individuals have died from the disease.
As of Sunday, the WHO reported that Japan has 1,046 cases of COVID-19 with 36 deaths. These numbers do not include the number of cases from the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama. That cruise ship had 712 infected passengers with seven deaths. The United States has a reported 15,219 cases with 201 deaths as of Sunday.
Source: USA Today (Christine Brennan)
