The most likely option now on the table is to allow up to 5,000 local fans at each venue of the Olympics
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About 40 percent of sessions, or time slots, of the Tokyo Olympics, are expected to take place without spectators. Japan is currently being faced with a fresh wave of COVID-19 infections. As a result, the current attendance cap of 10,000 people per venue is lowered to 5,000 as part of precautions measures.
The organizing committee and the Japanese government have started looking for alternatives ever since the number of cases increased.
The most likely option now on the table is to allow up to 5,000 local fans at each venue of the Olympics. The estimate of 40 percent is based on the assumption that all events with over 5,000 ticket holders and those taking place after 9 p.m. will be held behind closed doors, according to the officials.
Such events include the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as baseball, soccer, and athletics. There are a total of 750 sessions and more than 300 of them will take place behind closed doors, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The organizers of the Tokyo Olympics had earlier made the decision of not allowing any foreign spectators for the Games.
The 10,000-attendance cap was set under the impression that the emergency in Tokyo will be lifted.
Under the emergency, the number of people allowed at sports and other big events is restricted to 50 percent of venue capacity with an upper limit of 5,000 people.
President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach will visit Japan on July 9. He is also expected to visit Hiroshima on July 16, informed the Kyodo news agency.
Bach was supposed to visit in May to mark the start of the Olympic torch relay in Hiroshima. He later postponed the trip. Sources told Kyodo on Saturday that Bach was likely to visit Hiroshima on July 16. IOC Vice President John Coates could visit Nagasaki on the same date.
The Tokyo Olympics were originally scheduled for 2020. They were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Games are currently scheduled from July 23 until August 8.
