Athletes test positive for Covid-19 inside Olympic Village

Two South African soccer players inside the Olympic Village have tested positive for COVID-19, the South African Football Association said in a Sunday statement. The players and a South African video analyst who also tested positive are now at the “Tokyo 2020 isolation facility,” while other team members remain under quarantine. South Africa will play against Japan, the host nation, on Thursday.

How is Japan handling the infections? Olympic authorities have banned fans from attending the games and hope that daily testing would minimize infection risks. Organizers said 55 people connected to the Olympics have tested positive since July 1, but that number doesn’t include athletes and other team members still at training camps. The coach of South Africa’s rugby sevens team tested positive at the team’s camp in the southern city of Kagoshima. The British Olympic Association said six athletes and two staff members at the team’s training base in Yokohama are isolating after close contact with someone who tested positive on their flight to Tokyo. Tokyo reported 1,008 new infections on Sunday, the fifth straight day with more than 1,000 cases.

Dig deeper: Read June Cheng’s report about why the 2022 Olympics, set for Beijing, may also face some trouble.