An Olympics happening in Japan — yet cut off from it | CBC News

Right on cue, the concerns from Tokyo are getting louder. Restrictions for all are getting tighter.

Spectators, domestic and international, already know they cannot attend the events. Thousands of volunteers are being told they are no longer needed.

And now the Tokyo 2020 organizers say they will be restricting access around the cauldron, the fan zones and fan activity centres. There is not much left for the Japanese to possibly get out of the experience except for watching it all unfold on television.

• Follow CBC’s Tokyo 2020 coverage here.

The last-minute, although arguably inevitable, restrictions are because of the last-minute, although arguably inevitable, spike in coronavirus cases. 

Tokyo on Thursday reported its highest COVID-19 numbers in six months, with officials confirming 1,308 new cases. The city is in its fourth state of emergency but the subway is still busy, restaurants are still open, people are still going to work. And the vaccine rollout is still a struggle.  

Roughly 30 per cent of people in the country have had just a single shot. So there is anxiety and fatigue. And certainly there is frustration about all the arrivals.

A bold promise

IOC president Thomas Bach said Thursday there is “zero risk” that Olympic visitors will infect anyone in this city because positive cases would be isolated immediately.

That is a bold promise. And people are not seemingly calmed by it, with protests expected on Friday.

There is, instead, a motivated push to ensure rules are respected and deviators, unwitting or otherwise, are sanctioned.

A call for stricter punishments was even raised in parliament Thursday.

WATCH | COVID-19 cases rise in Tokyo ahead of Olympics:

No spectators, no fan zone, no Olympic cauldron viewing. The CBC’s Adrienne Arsenault has landed in Tokyo and reports on the tightening of restrictions that increasingly separate the Japanese from their own Olympic Games. (Hiro Komae/AP Photo) 6:49

Athletes who are already coming without most of their support networks are now staying in bubbles for the least amount of time necessary. They are not allowed to go to restaurants, tourist sites, stores or ride on public transportation. And they’ve just been told no one will be hanging medals around their necks on the podiums. Instead, the medals will be put on a tray.  They will have to put them on themselves.

That is a restriction many likely didn’t see coming. 

Restrictions for members of the media work like this:

There is no decree that those showing up be vaccinated, but reportedly about 80 per cent of those attending are anyway. At least two PCR COVID tests have to be performed within 96 and 72 hours before departing for Japan. Before arriving, a series of contact tracing and overt surveillance apps have to be uploaded to the phone.

People have to accept that they must fill out health forms and take temperatures daily and in some cases, as with CBC’s news team, there will be daily COVID tests. There must be a commitment to keep the GPS on phones turned on at all times. Upon arrival at the airport, a rapid test is performed.

Once cleared, accredited people are transported to their various accommodations.

No walking around outside

For the first 14 days, there is a type of “soft quarantine.” That means going only between the hotel and a pre-approved location and there’s no getting out of the car en route. 

No public transportation, no walking around outside either. No meeting with residents in public. No leaving the hotel except for an allowed 15-minute window to go to and return from a convenience store.

Other rules are evolving and confusion is setting in. There are no media villages as in past Games, so crews are housed in various hotels. 

But here’s where it gets complicated. There are, at times, members of the general public in those hotels, too. So, hallways and breakfast rooms are places where mixing can happen. 

Something certainly seems to have happened at a hotel where Brazilian athletes are staying. Seven staff members tested positive. The athletes are reportedly all negative but everyone is on edge. Chinese officials are upset about members of the Japanese public still staying in and visiting the hotel where Chinese athletes are staying.

Put this all together and you end up, one week out, with an Olympics happening in Japan yet severed from Japan. 

It will take work to inject joy into the experience for all, especially for a host city that has already given so much and is now being asked for more.