Japanese Doctors Call for Olympics Cancellation Amid Covid-19 Surge

By Katerina Ang, Jennifer Hassan, and Derek Hawkins, The Washington Post

18 May 21

he Tokyo 2020 Games start in 66 days, but a major Japanese doctors group is calling for the already delayed event to be canceled over fears that Japan’s health-care system cannot accommodate the potential medical needs of thousands of international athletes, coaches and media amid a surge of coronavirus cases in the country.

“We strongly request that the authorities convince the [International Olympic Committee] that holding the Olympics is difficult and obtain its decision to cancel the Games,” the Tokyo Medical Practitioners Association said. Tokyo hospitals “have their hands full and have almost no spare capacity,” the association of roughly 6,000 primary-care physicians added.

Infections continued to trend downward in the United States. President Biden said that coronavirus cases are down in all 50 states for the first time since the pandemic began and that the nation would share even more coronavirus vaccine doses internationally.