TOKYO (Reuters) – A leading Olympic Games health adviser said on Saturday that Tokyo 2020 had shown the COVID-19 pandemic could be beaten and would provide data to help countries around the world battle the coronavirus.
The Olympics in Tokyo had shown that measures such as social distancing, mask wearing, hand sanitising along with testing and tracing worked when implemented as a package, Brian McCloskey, the chair of the Game’s Independent Expert Panel, said at a press briefing.
“We have shown it is possible to keep a pandemic at bay and that is a very important lesson from Tokyo to the rest of the world,” he said.
The Tokyo 2020 organiser earlier said that it had recorded 404 Games-related COVID-19 cases since July 1.
Health data collected during the two weeks of the Games, including inside the athletes village, would be analysed and published so countries could use it to help plan their responses to the coronavirus, McCloskey said.
(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Michael Perry and Himani Sarkar)
