Tokyo Olympics organisers have defended their request for 500 nurses on the pandemic-delayed mega-event, after accusations of diverting essential medical sources. Reports about their request to the Japanese Nursing Association sparked a livid response amongst social media customers on Monday, the day after a coronavirus state of emergency was imposed within the capital. Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto confirmed the stories however stated discussions had been nonetheless ongoing, and that organisers would try to “provide you with a possible method of securing that many nurse sources”. “One of the key assumptions is you should not deteriorate the service level in the local community by pulling out these nurses, and I have made this point very clear,” Muto advised reporters.
Parts of Japan have seen a current resurgence in Covid-19 circumstances, pushed by extra infectious new variants.
A virus state of emergency got here into power in Tokyo and three different areas on Sunday, lower than three months earlier than the Olympic opening ceremony on July 23.
The hashtag “request for 500 nurses” was trending on Twitter in Japan on Monday, with many users scathing.
“This isn’t a joke, people will die because of the Olympics,” wrote one consumer.
“Are you trying to kill frontline medical staff?” wrote another.
Muto denied that the request was made “behind the scenes”, and stated “cautious and meticulous discussions” would be needed to fine-tune the details.
“We need to come up with a way to coexist,” he stated. “That’s what I imply with being versatile with working hours and shifts and so forth. We are consulting about that.”
Organisers are already struggling to drum up public support for the Games, with polls showing a majority of Japanese support cancellation or further postponement.
Overseas spectators have already been banned from the event over fears of the virus spreading, and a decision on how many domestic fans will be allowed into venues is expected soon.
Japan has had some success containing Covid-19, with just over 10,000 deaths despite never imposing strict lockdown measures.
But cases surged over the winter and have rebounded since the previous state of emergency was lifted in March.
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