IOC – COOPER GENERAL NEWS

Challenges at the Olympics

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday told organizers that they have done their best, and said the goal is not to have zero Covid cases during the games.

“The mark of success is making sure that any cases are identified, isolated, traced and cared for as quickly as possible, and onward transmission is interrupted,” Tedros said.

Dubi of the IOC said that’s what the organizers have done over the past few days, and will continue to do.

Looking to the future, including the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, he said the IOC has learned how to create safe conditions, but that the situation is “very fluid” and will keep evolving.

“We have to be prepared for the worst and we have to plan for the worst,” he said. He added that there are “no talks whatsoever” about a postponement.

The show must go on?

Earlier this week, Toshiro Muto, chief of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, did not rule out canceling the event if Covid-19 cases spike.

But Kirsten Holmes, a professor who focuses on events and tourism at Curtin University, said it would be “very difficult” for the organizers to cancel the games.

For the organizing committee, it’s very difficult for them to not go ahead.

Kirsten Holmes

Professor at Curtin University

She said the Tokyo Games will be more logistically difficult than normal games, and there will need to be flexibility. “But I think it’s very unlikely that … the whole games will be stopped,” she said.

“We could see individual competitions within that postponed or perhaps canceled, if all of the competitors are unable to take part,” she told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Friday.

With no spectators or international visitors, Holmes said the games will be all about the athletes, some of whom may only have one chance to compete at this level.

“For the organizing committee, it’s very difficult for them to not go ahead, and that’s why … we will see the event proceed over the next couple of weeks and of course the Paralympic Games next month as well,” she said.

Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will attend a daily press conference on COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, on March 11, 2020 at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images

The world is in the early stages of another wave of Covid-19 infections and deaths, World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

Speaking to members of the International Olympic Committee in Tokyo, Tedros said the global failure to share vaccines, tests and treatments is fueling a “two-pronged pandemic”. Countries with adequate resources like vaccines are opening up while others lock up to slow down the transmission of the virus.

Vaccine discrepancies around the world mask a “appalling injustice,” he added.

The pandemic is a test and the world is failing.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Director General, World Health Organization

“This is not only a moral outrage, but also epidemiologically and economically self-destructive,” Tedros said, adding that the longer the pandemic lasts, the more socio-economic turmoil it will bring. “The pandemic is a test and the world is failing.”

He warned: “19 months after the start of the pandemic and seven months since the first vaccines were approved, we are now in the early stages of another wave of infections and deaths”. Tedros added that the global threat from the pandemic will remain until all countries have the disease under control.

A festival of hope

The Tokyo Games are slated to open on Friday after being postponed last year due to the pandemic.

Rising Covid-19 cases in Tokyo have overshadowed the Olympics, which excluded all viewers from the Games this month after Japan declared a state of emergency.

The cases around the Japanese capital have increased by more than 1,000 new infections daily in the past few days. Japan has reported more than 848,000 Covid cases and over 15,000 deaths nationwide from a relatively slow vaccine adoption.

The first positive Covid-19 case hit the athletes’ village over the weekend and so far more than 70 cases have been linked to the Tokyo Games.

On Wednesday, Tedros said the Games were a celebration of “something our world needs now more than ever – a celebration of hope”. While the pandemic may have postponed the Games, he said it did not “beat” them.

Vaccine discrepancies

Tedros criticized the vaccine discrepancies between rich and low-income countries. He said 75% of all vaccine doses – more than 3.5 billion vaccinations – were given in just 10 countries, while only 1% of people in poorer countries received at least one vaccination.

“Vaccines are powerful and indispensable tools. But the world has not used them well,” he said, adding that vaccinations have not been widely available but have been concentrated in the “hands and arms of the lucky few”.

The global health authority has called for at least 70% of the population in every country to be vaccinated by the middle of next year.

“The pandemic will end when the world chooses to end it. It’s in our hands, ”said Tedros. “We have all the tools we need: we can prevent this disease, we can test for it, and we can treat it.”

He called on the world’s leading economies, by sharing vaccines and funding global efforts to make them more accessible, and incentivizing companies to expand vaccine production.

Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics owns the U.S. broadcast rights to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.