The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has held talks with heads of international sports organisations in response to the coronavirus pandemic on qualification for Tokyo 2020 and athlete classification.
With less than five months to go until the scheduled start of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on July 24, questions have been raised as to whether the Games can go ahead.
Numerous qualifiers in Olympic and Paralympic sports have been postponed or cancelled amid travel restrictions and bans on events involving a certain number of participants imposed by Governments to curb the spread of the virus.
Classification has also been hit and the IPC has told federations to prioritise those who are due to compete at the Paralympic Games.
However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Tokyo 2020 organisers have reiterated that preparations are going on for the Games to be held as planned.
The IOC, asked about a report by Japanese public broadcaster NHK that talks on the impact of the coronavirus were scheduled for Tuesday, said they were a regular part of dialogue with stakeholders.
“Since this situation started to develop some weeks ago, the IOC is constantly updating its stakeholders on the latest developments,” the IOC said in a statement to Reuters.
“The calls are part of this regular information sharing process.”
According to Johns Hopkins University website, the virus has killed more than 9,870 people and infected over 242,721 worldwide.
