Japan’s Olympic Games May Flame-Out Again

The Japan Times reported today a government spokesman discussed the possibility of extending the current State of Emergency in Tokyo, Osaka, and other prefectures beyond the May 31, 2021, expiration date.

As an example, Japan has placed the Okinawa Prefecture under the State of Emergency through June 20th. Okinawa confirmed a record high number of 231 COVID-19 cases on May 22nd.

Secretary Katsunobu Kato said on an NHK program 'the government will take into account the number of infections, the occupancy rates of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients and data concerning people’s movements when making decisions about lifting the emergencies in the 10 prefectures.'

Currently, in areas with a confirmed resurgence of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection, Japan's Health Ministry and prefectures are collaborating to implement focused and intensive PCR testing, requests to shorten business hours, etc.

As of May 21, 2021, Tokyo has confirmed the majority of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and related fatalities.

With the Summer Paralympics and Olympics 2020 scheduled to launch on July 21, 2021, Japan's ongoing State of Emergency may require another extension. The already-delayed events are scheduled to be held across 42 competition venues across Japan.

If held as scheduled, Olympic participants would need to arrive in early July, to comply with Japan's two-week quarantine of international visitors.

As of May 19th, foreign nationals who have stayed in any of the following 159 countries/regions within 14 days prior to the application for landing are denied to enter Japan pursuant to Article 5, paragraph, item (xiv) of Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, unless special exceptional circumstances are found.

The U.S. CDC announced on May 19, 2021, 'because of the current situation in Japan even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants and should avoid nonessential travel to Japan.'

This Level 3 Travel Alert says 'if you must travel to Japan, get fully vaccinated before travel. See the CDC recommendations for fully vaccinated travelers and unvaccinated travelers.’

To expand access to COVID-19 vaccines, Japan recently authorized its version of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. 

And, ‘get tested with a viral test 1-3 days before your trip, says the CDC.

Furthermore, when returning to the USA, all air passengers, including U.S. citizens and fully vaccinated people, are required to have a negative COVID-19 test result no more than 3 days before travel or documentation of recovery from COVID-19 in the past 3 months before they board a flight to the USA.

Vax-Before-Travel publishes research-based travel vaccine news.