Tokyo Hits New High For Daily COVID-19 Cases. This Time, No Olympians Are Among Them

With the Olympics underway, Tokyo has set a new, unfortunate record: for coronavirus cases.

Tokyo had 3,177 new positive cases on Tuesday, according to the city's government. The city has become Japan's biggest COVID-19 hot spot and is host to most of the Olympic events.

That's the highest number of cases for the city — topping the previous record, set just a day before — and it's far higher than when Olympic personnel began arriving in the city on July 1. That day, the coronavirus case count was 673.

The rise in new cases nationally is also setting records, according to local news outlets. Japan's Kyodo News reported that the number of new cases confirmed in the country on Wednesday was 9,583 — a big jump from a week earlier.

One bright spot: For the first time in four days, no Olympic athletes tested positive for the coronavirus in the preceding day.

But 16 Olympics-related personnel did test positive, including two members of the media. Since the start of July, 169 Olympic-affiliated people have tested positive, including at least 17 athletes.

A majority of the Japanese public has told pollsters that they are opposed to hosting the Games during the ongoing pandemic. Japan has a low rate of vaccination, with just 26% of the population fully vaccinated.

That means the country remains highly susceptible to coronavirus outbreaks, and many Japanese people fear they will get the virus from people who are in the country for the Olympics.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga urged people to stay home and watch the Olympics on TV. [Copyright 2021 NPR]