TOKYO : Initial data suggest that the spectator-free Tokyo Olympics didn’t exacerbate the Covid-19 outbreak in Japan, providing organizers of the Winter Games in China in February with one template for hosting the event.
Japan held the Summer Games from July 23 to Aug. 8 despite concern that around 50,000 athletes, officials and others from overseas might accelerate the spread of the virus.
The visitors arrived mostly in July, just as the highly contagious Delta variant was hitting Japan with full force, and infections in the country hit a peak in the first part of August during the Games.
The scale and speed of infections in Tokyo was similar to other parts of Japan and other countries hit by Delta. While superspreading events in other