As Dr Brian McCloskey, Chair of the Tokyo 2020 Independent Expert Panel, noted during a press briefing at the end of the Games, “Since the beginning of the pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has emphasised that the way out of the pandemic is through applying public health and social measures, such as social distancing, wearing masks and hand hygiene.”
He continued, “Backing this up by an effective and comprehensive test, track and trace programme. This has been the view of the WHO since the beginning.”
Before concluding, “What Tokyo 2020 has just done in an historic way is show that the WHO advice is right. By following basic public health measures, and by layering a testing programme on top, we have shown that it is possible to keep a pandemic at bay.”
One of the most comprehensive screening testing initiatives in history, implemented by Tokyo 2020, carried out 651,296 tests from 1 July to 7 August. The local health authorities conducted another 42,711 tests at Tokyo’s main airports. The final updates will come in the next few days.
AloJapan.com