Olympic athletes to put on own medals due to COVID-19

TOKYO - There's another significant change coming to the Olympic ceremonies

This year, the medals will be presented on a tray and the athletes will be asked to put the medals around their necks themselves.

This is, of course, a COVID-19 protocol - keeping everyone socially distanced as much as possible. 

Tokyo is under a fourth state of emergency, which began Monday and requires restaurants and bars to close early and not serve alcohol through the Olympics, which start July 23.

Thursday’s tally is the highest since 1,485 were recorded on Jan. 21, when Japan was under an earlier state of emergency, and is also a jump from Wednesday’s 1,149.

Japan’s slow vaccination rollout has improved dramatically since May as the government desperately pushes to improve the inoculation rate before the Olympics, but is slowing again due to shortages of imported vaccines. The latest government data show just 19.7% of the population has been fully vaccinated.

Due to the state of emergency in Tokyo and a fear of infections accelerating during the games, organizers last week decided to bar fans for most events, except for limited numbers at outlying locations.

Overall, Japan has had about 828,000 confirmed cases and 15,000 deaths.

Dr. Masataka Inokuchi, a medical adviser for a Tokyo metropolitan government panel, said Thursday he is worried that younger people may celebrate and party because of the Olympics, further accelerating infections.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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