Arab News Japan 

TOKYO: International Olympic Committee Chairman Thomas Bach met Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and Tokyo Games Chief Seiko Hashimoto on Thursday in order to reassure the Japanese public about anti-covid measures in place for the Olympic Games.

Bach offered a bouquet of flowers to the Governor of Tokyo for her 69th birthday. Bach was accompanied by the IOC’s John Coates, as well as Japanese and international officers from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Tokyo Organizing Committee.

Bach said that 85 percent of Olympic Village staff and athletes will be vaccinated and stated that the measures contained in the playbooks should be respected and that all athletes should be properly masked.

He insisted that there will be no contact between the Japanese public and the athletes in order to protect the Japanese, who are worried about the risks of the pandemic spreading due to the entry of athletes from different nations who might bring in dangerous variants.

He insisted that the risk of greater spread of the virus  was zero and called on the Japanese public to support the athletes who made the effort to compete in the Olympics when they, too, were affected by the pandemic.

“We will take effective measures to protect the health and lives of the people of Tokyo,” Bach said. “I will make sure there is no risk to the people living in Tokyo and the rest of Japan.”

A protester managed to break through security and shout slogans against the Olympics before being overpowered by security guards and was then escorted back to the exit. Bach suggested that the protestor should make focused statements rather than wild outbursts. Other protesters also demonstrated outside City Hall.