Amidst Corona Outbreak, Japan carries on with the traditional ‘Torch Relay’ of Olympic

Image Credits – Times Leader

The flight carrying the torch of Olympic had taken off from Greece and Finally arrived at the venue of the next Olympic which is Japan. The plane landed on the Northwestern coast of Japan on Friday. But, due to the Corona outbreak, the ceremony will have no spectators. There are talks that the event might get canceled as well.

The traditional flame was taken to the Matushima base of Japan’s Air Self Defence Force. And, according to the schedule, it will be touring the tsunami and earthquake hit the Tohuku region of the country. Termed as the ‘recovery flame’ tour, it is announced to go on until 26th March.

As stated by the officials, the event is set to start from 24th July and go on till 9th August. But the fear of the Corona pandemic has instilled the fear of this mega event getting canceled or postponed.

The respiratory disease that spread across the globe within few days of its emergence in China, has already infected more than 2, 45,000 people and taken the lives of more than 10,000 people, on a global scale.

Japan is now under tremendous pressure as during the event, which is going to earn sponsorship of around $3 billion, the country has to make sure that no health crisis occurs among the overseas spectators and athletes, the count of which is expected to be 600,000.

The flight carrying the torch arrived almost empty as the organizing committee of the event had decided that no high-level delegation would be receiving the flight.

The organizing committee has asked the citizens not to gather at the relay route. The committee has also canceled many events along the mentioned path. And, as mentioned by the organizers, the health of the runners and the entire staff will be closely monitored.

The same event was canceled in Greece to avoid crowd gathering.

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