(Photo: IOC)

Lausanne (People's Daily) - To safeguard health and help contain the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the Executive Board (EB) for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced it would increase efforts on scenario-planning for the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 

Due to the increase in COVID-19 cases worldwide, the EB felt it was necessary that the IOC be prepared for the worst.

IOC President Thomas Bach said that safeguarding the health of everyone involved and contributing to containment of the virus is a fundamental principle.

“Human lives take precedence over everything, including the staging of the Games. The IOC wants to be part of the solution. Therefore, we have made it our leading principle to safeguard the health of everyone involved, and to contribute to containing the virus.,” Bach said.

The efforts are expected to garner greater visibility amid the sudden changes in health conditions worldwide and in Japan. It will help the IOC make the best decision in the interest of the athletes and everyone involved. 

So far, Japan has made improvements as spectators have warmly welcomed the Olympic flame.

Such efforts could strengthen IOC confidence in the host nation as the IOC could, with safety restrictions, organize the Olympics in Japan while honoring the principles associated with safeguarding public health. 

Key Olympic venues are under threat along with hotel reservations that have been paid for, which would be a logistical nightmare to handle should the Olympics be canceled. .

The number of hotel rooms already booked will be difficult to handle, and the international sports calendar for at least 33 event would have to adapt.

The IOC will work with the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, the Japanese authorities and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, will work together to make sure the Games move ahead as planned. As Bach said in his letter, cancelling the Olympics would not solve anything nor help anyone.

The IOC is expected to have everything finalized within the next four weeks.

“I wish, and we all are working for this, that the hope so many athletes, NOCs and IFs from all five continents have expressed will be fulfilled: that at the end of this dark tunnel we are all going through together, not knowing how long it is, the Olympic flame will be a light at the end of this tunnel,” Bach said.