TOKYO: Two employees of the Tokyo Olympic organising committee have tested positive for Covid-19, officials said on Saturday.

That brings to three the number of employees of the committee who have tested positive since the pandemic began.

Organisers said a man and a woman had tested positive but gave few details. They said the man was in his 20s and the woman in her 30s, and that both were now working from home rather than at the headquarters located near Tokyo Bay.

Many of the organising committee’s employees have been working remotely though some have returned to office work in the last few months.

The organising committee has a staff of 3,500.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been put back to July 23, 2021 due to the pandemic. The original closing ceremony was to have been Sunday, Aug 9.

Japan has reported just over 1,000 deaths from Covid-19. Like the country, Tokyo has been largely spared, though new cases have been rising for the last few weeks with officials urging people not to travel and to stay away from bars and restaurants.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2020