TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledged Monday to strengthen health controls at airports after a Ugandan Olympic team member tested positive for COVID-19 at the town hosting their training camp, triggering concerns that the upcoming games will spread infections.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, center, stands by a remotely-controlled guide robot at Haneda international airport in Tokyo, Monday, June 28, 2021. Suga inspected antigen testing for arrivals and vowed to ensure appropriate border controls as growing numbers of Olympic and Paralympic participants enter Japan ahead of the July 23 opening of the games
A Ugandan team member, reportedly a coach, tested positive on Saturday at Tokyo’s Narita airport and was quarantined there. But the rest of the nine-person team was allowed to travel more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) on a chartered bus to their pre-Olympics camp in the western prefecture of Osaka.
Three days later, a second Ugandan also tested positive for the virus, forcing seven town officials and drivers who had close contacts with the team to self-isolate. The team members were quarantined at a local hotel.
Concerns escalated after it was announced that both Ugandans had the more infectious delta variant of the virus.
In response to criticism of the case, Suga rushed to Tokyo’s Haneda international airport to inspect virus testing for arrivals and vowed to ensure appropriate border controls as growing numbers of Olympic and Paralympic participants enter Japan ahead of the July 23 opening of the games.
The Uganda case illustrated that Japan’s border health controls can be easily breached, Tokyo Medical Association Chairman Haruo Ozaki said Sunday on NHK public television. “Apparently the border controls are not adequate, even though there has been plenty of time to work on them,” he said.
