Virus risk inevitable at Tokyo Olympics – says WHO Leader

The Delta variant of the coronavirus is in full flower. Japan is under a state of emergency. Less than a quarter of Japanese population has been jabbed. The Tokyo Olympics should not be judged by the tally of COVID-19 cases that arise because eliminating risk is impossible, the head of the World Health Organization told sports officials Wednesday as events began in Japan. General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the way infections are handled is what matters the most. “The mark of success is making sure that any cases are identified, isolated, traced and cared for as quickly as possible and onward transmission is interrupted,” he said in a speech to an International Olympic Committee meeting. Since the Olympics have started, 220 cases have been recorded in the Olympics only. Health experts in Japan warned the government that the Olympics will become a super spreader event bringing in thousands of foreign athletes, officials along with a large number of side-line workers. Japan was already in a state of emergency when the Olympics was planned. In the recent surge of the Delta Plus variant, this was bound to happen as the vaccination drive in Japan wasn’t efficient enough when the Olympics began. Tedros warned the world that anyone who believed the pandemic was over because it was under control was living in a “a fool’s paradise”. While talking about this, he said that “The pandemic is a test and world is failing,” He also added that in such difficult times, Japan was “giving courage to the whole world.” The WHO leader also gave a very critical message to the leaders and to the richer countries about providing vaccines to the less fortunate countries in the world.