Malaysian athletes in Tokyo free of Covid-19

There are no cases of Covid-19 infection involving Malaysian athletes and contingent who are currently at the Olympic Village in Tokyo, Japan, says Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal.

He said the national contingent who arrived in Japan last Sunday was now in the phase of adjustment and the athletes had also started light training.

“Our athletes are all OK. We have officers there who monitor their condition and so far, there have been no Covid-19 cases involving our athletes,” he told the media after visiting the Movenpick KLIA mega vaccine administering centre (PPV), here, today.

There were reportedly 71 Covid-19 cases detected involving the prestigious sporting tournament.

The Malaysian contingent comprising 40 people including 18 athletes from swimming, diving, badminton, gymnastics and archery left for Tokyo last Saturday to compete at the world’s biggest sporting event from July 23 to Aug 8.

Four sailing athletes accompanied by three officials left for Tokyo on July 8 while the next group from track cycling, athletics and golf are expected to leave on July 25.

On the statement by the head of the Tokyo Olympic Games Organising Committee, Toshiro Muto, who did not rule out the possibility of the games being cancelled at the last minute if the Covid-19 cases continued to rise, Wan Ahmad Fayhsal said Malaysia was monitoring the situation.

On a separate development, Wan Ahmad Fayhsal said a total of 470 sports industry workers had registered as volunteers under the Malaysia Vaccine Support Volunteers (MyVac) programme.

“It’s just that they (volunteers) have not been assigned. They will be placed (at the PPV) according to the current need,” he said.

MyVac, launched last March, is a collaboration involving the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Youth and Sports and Ministry of Higher Education to help with managing vaccination for the community. According to Wan Ahmad Fayhsal, 106 MyVac volunteers were stationed at the mega PPV, Movenpic KLIA.