Just hours out from Friday’s opening ceremony, the Tokyo Olympics announced 19 new COVID-19 cases, including three athletes, bringing the total related to the 2020 Games since July 1 to 106.
The news also comes after Japan saw its highest case count Thursday — 1,979 — since 2,044 were recorded on Jan. 15.
The country’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and the International Olympic Committee have been determined to hold the Olympics despite the pandemic. Suga placed Tokyo under a state of emergency on July 12, but cases have continued to rise.
Fans have been barred from all Olympic venues in the Tokyo area, with limited capacity at some outlying sites.
As of Thursday, Japan had reported about 853,000 cases and 15,100 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 with about 23 per cent of its citizens fully vaccinated.
With files from The Associated Press
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