SYDNEY (AFP): The International Olympic Committee's point man for the Tokyo Games has insisted there's no deadline to call off the event and that it was still going ahead as planned.
John Coates, chairman of the Tokyo coordination commission, was speaking before his return from Switzerland to Australia, where he is facing a mandatory two-week quarantine.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach have repeatedly insisted preparations should continue as scheduled even as the virus scare intensifies. "The difficulty for those who have qualified or will qualify is they won't get any more international competition," admitted Coates, who said it will also be difficult to get athletes into Japan without further spreading coronavirus.
"They will go straight from confinement there, straight into Japan. They won't put anyone on a plane who has got coronavirus."
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