Coronavirus outbreak: Tokyo Olympics 2020 may be postponed till end of year, says Japan minister

Japan’s Olympics minister Seiko Hashimoto on Tuesday (March 3) hinted that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) may grant the grand be postponed till later this year after the colossus outbreak of the coronavirus.

“The contract calls for the Games to be held within 2020. That could be interpreted as allowing a postponement,” Seiko was quoted as saying in response to a lawmaker’s question in parliament by Reuters.

Hashimoto then went on to add how the Japanese government is still ready to host the Olympics in Tokyo.

“We are doing all we can to ensure that the Games go ahead as planned,” she told parliament.

The opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics is scheduled to take place on July 24 and the games will conclude on August 9.

Coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 people in 37 countries, causing more than 2,600 deaths in the past a few months.

Wuhan city in China has been reported as the epicentre of novel coronavirus outbreak. The virus was first detected in Hubei, China and has now spread to many parts of the globe.

Until last week, China reported 508 new cases and another 71 deaths, 68 of them in the central city of Wuhan, where the epidemic was first detected in December.

The updates bring mainland China’s totals to 77,658 cases and 2,663 deaths. South Korea now has the second-most cases in the world with 977, including 10 deaths. In Japan four deaths have been reported, however, Pound has encouraged athletes to keep training.