Tested and tracked ! Olympic visitors set for Tokyo 2020

PTI, Jul 14, 2021, 9:43 AM IST

Image for representation

Tokyo: As the pandemic continues, Japan is welcoming accredited visitors to Tokyo for the delayed summer Olympic Games which opens on July 23.

Athletes and journalists from around the world will be arriving under a massive security effort during the month of games.

After arrival at Haneda Airport, Olympic visitors are requested to install smart phone apps and activate GPS for tracking their whereabouts while in Japan. Most importantly, everyone has to take a coronavirus test and get a negative result before entering Tokyo.

Olympics participants including journalists are required to download an online check-in and health report App (OCHA) onto their smartphone, where visitors input daily health status.

Saliva testing kits are provided and all visitors are required to test for the first three days and thereafter once in every four days till the end of their stay.
The restrictions also include a ban on using public transportation, going to restaurants or tourist spots or even simply take a walk for their first 14 days in the country.

Athletes will be tested daily for coronavirus. They’ll also be isolated in the bubble-like athletes’ village and are expected to stay there, or in a similarly locked-down bubbles at venues or training sites.

If anyone is infected, officials will use GPS to look at movement logs and do contact tracing back to their entry into Japan.

The IOC and local Tokyo organisers have published so-called ‘Playbooks’ to spell out rules for entry into Japan for Olympics and Paralympics athletes from 205 nations and territories and the travelling media. At Tokyo Big Sight, the largest exhibition centre in capital Tokyo, serves as 2020 Olympics main press centre and international broadcasting centre.