Olympics: More international athletes test positive for COVID-19

Czech beach volleyball player Ondrej Perusic has returned a positive COVID-19 test at the Olympic Games Village in Tokyo, the Olympic Committeeof the Czech Republic said on Monday.

On Saturday, the team said a staff member had tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in Tokyo on a charter flight from Prague.

Perusic, 26, was due to play his first match on July 26, which the team said was now unlikely due to isolation requirements.

A female U.S. gymnast, in her teens, also tested positive for COVID-19 in Inzai, just east of Tokyo, where her team has been staying to train.

U.S. Gymnastics says the female and her close contact were alternate or replacement members of the team.

Two police officers patrol outside the athlete's village for the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, July 15, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. /CFP

As the start of the Games nears, fears are growing as positive cases keep emerging. But a health adviser for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on COVID-19 countermeasures insisted on Monday that the Olympic Village is safe.

Brian McCloskey, chair of an independent expert panel advising the IOC on COVID-19 countermeasures, told a press conference that individual infections are expected as related people go through different layers of filtering. However, he said that with all the countermeasures in place, particularly robust testing measures and quick response, infections would not pose risks to others.

According to the Games organizers, 58 positive cases related to the Games, including four athletes, have been reported as of Monday since July 1.

(With input from Reuters and Xinhua)