THE GUARDIAN


 

Move comes amid preparations in Tokyo for the Olympics, which are due to be held from 23 July despite a raging fourth wave

The US has urged its citizens to avoid all travel to Japan, where concern is rising over new variants of the coronavirus, but officials insist the move will not complicate preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The state department on Monday issued its highest Level 4 travel warning for Japan, where a month-long state of emergency has helped reduce cases in Tokyo but failed to have a significant impact on the country’s fourth wave of Covid-19 infections.

“Travelers should avoid all travel to Japan,” the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] said in new guidance issued less than two months before the Olympics are due to open.

“Because of the current situation in Japan even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading Covid-19 variants and should avoid all travel to Japan,” it added.

The state department’s warning was more blunt. “Do not travel to Japan due to Covid-19,” it said.

The decision will have little impact on leisure travel: Japan has closed its borders to tourists, with only Japanese citizens and foreign residents permitted to enter the country.

In Tokyo, officials said the warning would not impact preparations for the Games, which Olympic and Japanese organisers insist will go ahead as planned on 23 July.

Joe Biden told Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, that the US backed plans for a “safe and secure” Games when they met in Washington last month, and Japan’s top spokesman, Katsunobu Kato, told reporters on Tuesday he did not believe the advisory would affect the Olympics.
The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee [USOPC], which oversees Team USA, said it was aware of the advisory.

“We feel confident that the current mitigation practices in place for athletes and staff by both the USOPC and the Tokyo organising committee, coupled with the testing before travel, on arrival in Japan, and during Games time, will allow for safe participation of Team USA athletes this summer,” the committees said in a statement.

More than 11,000 athletes due to compete in Tokyo will not have to complete 14 days’ quarantine but must test negative before leaving their home countries and on arrival in Japan, and submit to daily tests inside an Olympic village “bubble” during their involvement in the Games.

Japanese organisers have already decided to ban overseas spectators and are expected to decide whether to allow Japanese citizens to attend Olympic venues next month.

Despite the recent fall in cases in Tokyo and Osaka – where hospital beds for Covid patients have reached capacity – Japan recently qualified for Level 4 status, defined by the CDC as a “very high level” of Covid-19 cases.

Level 4 notices apply to countries where the coronavirus incidence rate – or cumulative new cases over the past 28 days per 100,000 people – exceeds 100, according to the Kyodo news agency.

Japan met the criteria on Friday, and its current incidence rate is 120 cases per 100,000, an official of the US health protection agency said.

Very few people in Japan have been vaccinated against the virus, adding to concerns about possible new outbreaks driven by more contagious variants.

Just over 4% of the country’s 126 million people have received at least one jab, but Suga has vowed to have 36 million people aged over 64 fully protected by the end of July.

Vaccinations for the general population are not expected to get into full swing until after the Olympics end on 8 August.