Lighting events will take place over the next five days in 43 of Japan’s 47 prefectures that will not stage Paralympic competitions. The locations and lighting methods have been left up to each municipality, and the flames will be brought to Tokyo later this month.
The Tokyo Paralympics are highly likely to have no spectators in principle as the novel coronavirus continues to rage, especially in the Tokyo metropolitan area, now under a COVID-19 state of emergency.
The giant floating rings monument on a concrete platform set up at Odaiba Marine Park will soon be replaced with the “Three Agitos” symbol for the Paralympics, scheduled to be held from Aug. 24 to Sept. 5.
The torch relay for the Tokyo Paralympics will be taken off public roads for Aug. 20-24 legs in the capital due to the current COVID-19 infection status, the metropolitan government said Tuesday.
The Paralympic flame will tour Shizuoka, Chiba and Saitama before the climax of the Paralympic Torch Relay from 17 August to 24 August; the day of the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
Spanning across all of Japan’s 43 prefectures as well as in Stoke Mandeville in the United Kingdom – the birthplace of the Paralympic Movement – the flame will be brought together to create a single flame at a Flame Gathering Event in Tokyo on 20 August.
Seiko Hashimoto said the highest priority was given to ensuring they were delivered in a “safe and secure” manner by putting anti-coronavirus measures in place. She refrained, however, from declaring the event a success with an eye on the approaching Paralympics.
“According to the verdict, between March and August of last year, he repeatedly committed indecent acts and assaulted four boys who were users of the facility, in conspiracy with his colleagues.”
The new guidelines stipulate that COVID-19 patients with a low possibility of developing severe symptoms be cared for at home, in principle. However, Chiba Prefecture has established its own standards for hotel treatment and home treatments, with exceptions for people with disabilities, the elderly or pregnant who are asymptomatic or mildly ill.
Japan’s health minister Norihisa Tamura said Thursday that COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms will be advised to be treated at a hospital if the doctor says they have a high risk of getting more ill, under the government’s revised guidelines on coronavirus hospitalization.
“People with moderate symptoms will be hospitalized, in principle,” Tamura also explained at a parliamentary committee meeting.
Barrier Free Japan