Arab News Japan 

TOKYO: Some members of the Tunisian team scheduled to participate in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics contracted the new coronavirus, immigration tests showed. 

City officials said that 11 people, including athletes on the same plane, are suspected of being in close contact, and the health center is investigating the details, local media reported.

Thirty-two Tunisian athletes planning to participate in the track and field competitions at the Tokyo Paralympics came to Japan on August 12 to hold a pre-training camp in Edogawa district in Tokyo.  A quarantine checkpoint confirmed a staff member to be COVID positive on his arrival at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

According to the city office, the staff entered a quarantine facility, and 31 people on the same plane entered a hotel in the ward as scheduled. Eleven of them are suspected of being in close contact due to the arrangement of seats on the plane, so a doctor and a public health nurse at the health center are conducting interviews at the hotel.

Health authorities will investigate the remaining 20 people. If they are judged to be in close contact with each other, they will be kept on standby in the hotel’s private rooms and monitored every day for any changes in their physical condition.

The city officials had planned to welcome the team with banners at the hotel , but decided to cancel it in response to this incident.