The Tokyo Olympics had already seen cases of coronavirus before the opening ceremony, but health expert Brian McCluskey said this was expected and that the total was below expectations at the moment.
American tennis player Coco Gauff tested positive for covid-19 before boarding the plane. Other athletes tested positive at the airport after arriving in Japan or inside the Olympic Village Athletes Bubble.
“What we’re seeing is what we expected,” McCluskey, a senior gaming advisor, said at a press conference Monday (19). “We do the tests because it is a means of filtering [as pessoas com covid-19]”.” We get to know them early on, isolating them from others. is expected. Each layer of filtering reduces risk. The numbers we’re seeing are smaller and possibly lower than we expected.”
McCluskey, chair of the independent expert panel that advises regulators on COVID-19 mitigation measures, said there is no way to be 100% sure that no athlete will be infected, but that procedures in place reduce that risk significantly.
Asked if the Olympic Village was safe, McCluskey said, “Yes… the longer you stay in the village, the less likely it is that you will test positive because we are filtering people.”
McCluskey, who was in charge of the UK’s Health Protection Agency in 2012 in preparation for the London Olympics, said he did not want to say how many cases would be a success for the Games.
