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Japan considers asking Olympic fans for negative COVID tests, vaccinations

Japan is considering requiring negative COVID-19 test results or vaccination records from fans attending the Tokyo Olympics. (Shutterstock)
Japan is considering requiring negative COVID-19 test results or vaccination records from fans attending the Tokyo Olympics. (Shutterstock)
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31 May 2021 01:05:25 GMT9
31 May 2021 01:05:25 GMT9

Tokyo Olympics fans may have to be vaccinated or test negative for the coronavirus before being allowed into venues, a Japanese newspaper report said Monday.

Cheering, eating, high-fives and drinking alcohol would also be banned under controls now being considered, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily said, citing unnamed government officials.

Organisers are set to decide in June how many spectators — if any — will be allowed to attend the pandemic-postponed Games.

Overseas fans are already barred, and the report warned domestic spectators may be denied entrance or kicked out for breaking the rules.

“The plan is to stop the spread of infections during Games time with strict countermeasures,” the paper said.

Under the plan, spectators must be able to show a vaccination certificate or a negative test taken at their own expense less than a week before entering the venue.

They must wear masks and fill in health-check sheets, and once inside must not cheer loudly or high-five each other.

Security guards would be stationed around venues monitoring behaviour, the report said, with public viewing venues cancelled or scaled down.

The report was met with outrage among some social media users, with thousands of tweets criticising the country’s continued push to host the Olympics in the middle of a pandemic. The term “negative test certificate” was trending on Twitter in Japan, garnering over 8,000 tweets on Monday morning.

Japan’s top government spokesman Katsunobu Kato told reporters on Monday he was not aware that any decision had been made regarding the issue.

The Tokyo Olympics organising committee did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment on the report.

Japan’s vaccine rollout has been moving slowly, with less than 2.5 percent of the population fully vaccinated so far.

Tokyo and other parts of the country are under a virus state of emergency which was extended on Friday until June 20, just over a month before the opening ceremony on July 23.

The Yomiuri also published a new poll on Monday that shows 49 percent of people living in Tokyo want the Games to go ahead, while 48 percent want them cancelled.

A total of 25 percent said they wanted the Games go ahead with a limited number of spectators, while 24 percent said they wanted them to be held with no fans.

A new country-wide poll by the Nikkei newspaper found that 62 percent of respondents wanted the Games to be cancelled or postponed again, while 34 percent were in favour of them being held this summer.

Organisers have repeatedly ruled out the Games being postponed again.

AFP

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