This is not what I expected months away from the Tokyo Olympics/Paralympics 2020.
Since 2016, each year there has been anticipation, excitement and a feeling of unity when it came to the Olympics.
The Olympics are scheduled to take place in Tokyo from July 24 to August 9 and the Paralympics from August 25 to September 6.
We have seen Tokyo literally change, with old stations receiving renovations, new stations being built, new buildings added, the Olympics was what would bring economic prosperity to a country that has had an increase of tourism each and every year.
I have been excited for the upcoming Olympics. But now…
The novel coronavirus (health officials have labeled this new virus SARS-CoV-2 and its disease COVID-19) has turned the feeling of excitement to fear as the spread of the virus has now made it into more countries and more and more people are becoming infected. Those who are getting sick, their local area does not have the means of testing these patients are infected.
And if things do not get better within the next three months, a senior member of the International Olympic Committee has said that organizers are more than likely going to cancel the Olympics than to postpone or move it.
80,000 people globally have been diagnosed with the illness.
While Japan has 840 people who have tested positive for corona virus and news reports are showing that infections are primarily those who were on the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama, already we have seen articles of a Dentsu advertising employee having tested positive (nothing is known of how many people the person came in contact, especially when riding the busy train to Shimbashi to Shiodome).
Many travelers are discussing on travel forums of how Kyoto and other tourist heavy areas are literally empty.
During Chinese Lunar New Year holidays, duty free sales dropped by 20%. Many theme parks, attractions have temporarily closed, while concerts have been postponed or canceled.
The big Cherry Blossom weeks of late March to early April are one of the heaviest tourist times for people to visit Japan, but one can read a travel forum and read the anguish of travelers who want to cancel and those who struggle to cancel because their ticket is not refundable. And those who are planning to travel, have faced tough challenges from their workplace or co-workers in fears that they may get sick if they travel to Japan and infect the workplace. According to these travel forums, some jobs are asking employees, if they intend to travel overseas to countries hit by the coronavirus, they will need to self-quarantine for 14 days.
There is so much fear right now, that many are banking on the belief that like most viruses, they won’t last during the warmer or hot weather.
Viruses known to cause influenza do subside in warmer months but it’s too early to know if the coronavirus will behave the same way.
As for Japan, it has cost the country more than 1 trillion yen (almost $9 billion), broadcasters and sponsors have spent a lot. But the big worries is the money expected to be generated through tourism, as many people were planning to travel to Japan for the games.
Right now, the worry worldwide is how the virus will hit their communities. The news this week is how many people traveled to Italy for vacation, have been ion contact with many people and now they are back home in their country, infected and testing positive for coronavirus. We are seeing the numbers of those testing positive increase in both South Korea and in Iran.
And to make matters worse, health care facilities do not have enough N95 respirator masks and we are still quite some time away from scientists from developing a vaccine.
The window is shortening to fend off the outbreak. To be a pandemic, the virus must have caused sickness, death and sustained person-to-person transmission. In addition, a spread of the virus in communities in more and more countries. While the World Health Organization said the term “pandemic” has not fit the facts, so could the reason of not classifying the spread of the coronavirus as a pandemic perhaps be related to avoiding economic collapse?
Needless to say, will the country be a much safer Japan three months from now? Will we see the cases of infected and tested positive for the coronavirus drop than increase worldwide? Or is it perhaps that things are much worse than is being reported?
Let’s hope for the best.
