The 2020 Olympics finally opened in Tokyo today after a year-long delay. However, the greatest drama of the Games began to unfold well ahead of the opening ceremony: COVID-19 has already sidelined 13 athletes from around the world, and the Games threatens to accelerate the disease's spread both in Japan and globally.
As my colleague Amy Gunia reports, when it comes to the pandemic, Japan was in trouble even before the Olympics began. While it has fared well compared to many other countries—it has reported about 860,000 cases and 15,000 deaths among its 126 million residents—only 23% of its residents are fully vaccinated, compared to 49% in the U.S. The spread of the Delta variant and the Japanese public's exhaustion with social distancing precautions has led to a new surge of the virus; Japan is currently reporting a seven-day rolling average of 3,840 new daily cases, compared to 1,512 on July 1.
Japanese public health experts fear that the Games stand to exacerbate their country's crisis. Dr. Kentaro Iwata, an infectious disease specialist at Kobe University, went so far as to say that, although he wishes all the athletes well, it may help to contain viral spread if Japan's Olympians lose more than they win. "If Japanese athletes win lots of gold medals, and there's a euphoric atmosphere, then people may go out and eat and drink together and break the rules, in the Tokyo area particularly," Iwata told Amy.
Although organizers are taking steps to curb viral spread—most spectators are banned from the events, for instance—some of those involved are still getting infected. As of today, 110 people connected to the Olympics have tested positive, including six athletes from the Czech Republic, among the hardest-hit teams. Markéta Sluková-Nausch, a Czech volleyball player who tested positive along with her teammate, said finding out about their results, which knocked them out of competition, was painful after working so hard to reach the Games. "We cried, then we swore, then we cried again," Sluková-Nausch said.
American athletes are largely inoculated against the virus, but about one in six are unvaccinated, NBC News reports. American swimmer Michael Andrew, for instance, said ahead of the Olympics that he wouldn't get vaccinated for the competitions due to concerns about how his body would react to the shot, the Washington Post reports. Several Americans have already tested positive, including beach volleyball player Taylor Crabb and gymnastics alternate Kara Eaker. At least one, Eaker, was fully vaccinated, a reminder that the shots can help prevent severe illness but are not a guarantee against infection.
To minimize viral spread as the Olympics go on, officials must continue testing and tracking athletes, and isolating those who test positive. And while it's heartbreaking to watch the world's top athletes get sidelined by COVID-19, a greater danger will come later, as competitors return to their home countries, many of which have low vaccination rates. Until then, we won't know if these Games will be celebrated as a triumph against a pandemic, or slammed as a global super-spreader event.
About 391.9 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of yesterday afternoon, of which some 339.7 million doses had been administered thus far, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 48.8% of Americans had been completely vaccinated.
Nearly 193 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 4.1 million people have died. On July 22, there were 568,919 new cases and 8,742 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 3 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded nearly 34.3 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. Nearly 610,200 people have died. On July 22, there were 55,058 new cases and 315 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of July 23, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
The U.S. is buying 200 million more Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses to be delivered between October 2021 and April 2022, Pfizer announced today, bringing the country's total order to 500 million. The new doses are intended "to help meet continued need for vaccine supply in the U.S.," the statement said. About half of Americans remain unvaccinated, but many of those appear to be unwilling to get a shot. So while Pfizer's vaccines last 30 days in regular storage or six months in ultra-cold storage, they still may go unused unless more Americans change their mind, or new policies surrounding vaccination come into enforcement.
Everyone in Chicago Public School (CPS) buildings will be required to mask up this coming school year regardless of their vaccination status, officials at the third-largest U.S. school district announced yesterday. "Our goal is to keep all students healthy and safe while they learn in-person five days a week with their teachers and peers so they can receive the education and support they need and deserve," CPS interim CEO Jose Torres said in a letter to local families. The state of California and New York City have announced similarly strict rules.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is pausing the "travel bubble" allowing quarantine-free movement between her country and Australia, she said at a press conference today, explaining that the Delta variant has changed the pandemic's dynamics. Australians will still be permitted to travel to New Zealand, but will face a mandatory two-week quarantine upon arrival. About 13 million people are under virus-related lockdowns in Australia, according to Reuters; the country is reporting a seven-day rolling average of 137 new cases a day. New Zealand has reported just 132 cases in the last month.
The National Football League announced tough new rules yesterday to push teams to get their players vaccinated: if a game is canceled because of an outbreak among unvaccinated players and can't be rescheduled, the team responsible for said outbreak will forfeit the game and be held responsible for the resulting financial losses, NFL.com reports. The league says 75% of players overall are in the process of being vaccinated, while over half of NFL clubs say more than 80% of their players have gotten their shots.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Tara Law and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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