Tokyo Olympics chief commits to Games as infections surge amid fresh calls to postpone or cancel

TOKYO - Tokyo's Olympics chief said on Friday that Japan was committed to holding a safe Games this summer, as a surge in Covid-19 cases prompted an expansion of contagion controls and with fresh calls for the Games to again be postponed or cancelled.

The government added Aichi, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba to six other prefectures already under contagion controls, including the cities of Tokyo and Osaka.Japan's top health experts have acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic has entered a fourth wave. A senior ruling party official said on Thursday that cancelling this year's Olympics remains an option if the coronavirus situation becomes too dire.A scaled-back torch relay is already underway. Olympic organisers said on Friday that on the main island of Okinawa in Japan's southernmost Okinawa prefecture they would stage the relay in restricted areas without spectators instead of on public roads.

Japan has exhibited"poor performance" in containing virus transmission, along with limited testing capacity and a slow vaccination rollout, according to a commentary of health experts published in the British Medical Journal on Wednesday. A survey of more than 1,000 Japanese doctors last month showed that 75% believed it was better to postpone the Games, according to physician referral company Ishinotomo.

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