There is confusion over the Osaka leg of the Olympic torch relay after Japan’s Prime Minister announced it had been cancelled amid a coronavirus surge, only for Tokyo Games organisers to deny that is the case.
The torch had been scheduled to visit Osaka on April 13 and 14 as part of its nationwide tour ahead of this summer’s delayed Olympics, but the prefecture governor Hirofumi Yoshimura called for the event to be axed after a spike in infections.
Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga suggested on Thursday that the relay would no longer visit Osaka, but organisers then told Reuters that no decision had yet been made.
Osaka only left a state of emergency last month and reported 599 new cases on Wednesday. That was a jump from 432 on Tuesday and near the all-time high of 654 set on Jan. 8.
The relay began last week in Fukushima and is being seen as the first major test of the Games in holding a large-scale event while implementing stringent health protocols.
Around 10,000 runners will carry the torch through the country’s 47 prefectures over 121 days.
Tokyo Olympics organisers are requiring roadside spectators to wear masks, practise social distancing and not cheer out loud to prevent the spread of the virus, and there have been no reports so far of infections arising from the relay.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
