The conversation on air quality in India is often seasonal, resurfacing around the winter months of polluted air. But Covid-19 will likely make this focusespecially on indoor air qualityan everyday phenomenon.
If India hopes to reopen offices, cinema halls, malls, and schools fully and safely in the future, ventilation will be a key aspect of a social life that coexists with Covid-19. This is because closed, crowded spaces with close contactthe three Cshave been consistently shown to be associated with spread; a combination of the three being often associated with superspreader events, says Dr Lancelot Pinto, consultant pulmonologist at Mumbais Hinduja Hospital.
Most of these solutions are basic and involve cracking open a window and ensuring there is greater air exchange per hour. (Air exchange per hour is the number of times the entire volume of air in a room is completely replaced.)
But this may be a double-edged sword in India. In some cities with clean air and moderate climates, creating a draft for fresh air to circulate is possible and ideal. Fans can be added to help lower temperatures, improve ambient comfort, and help air circulate, Pinto says. But these need to be placed in ways that do not cause air to be blasted from one person to another (exhaust fans might help redirect air).
Pinto says. There would be challenges to manage this in the monsoons, and one would have to think of novel and tailored solutions to prevent discomfort due to humidity.
But cities in northern and central India, with high levels of particulate matter pollution, would have to consider the risk of Covid-19 versus the risk of oxidative stress from poor air quality, says Jai Dhar Gupta, founder of Nirvana Being, a protective solutions company. For eight months a year, our air quality is so bad that its not ideal to create ventilation with polluted air from outside, he says.
For this, an HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) consultant can work with companies and institutions to install filtration devicessuch as HEPA filters that weed out small particles and even some pathogens, and ultraviolet machines to kill disease-causing virusesin existing air conditioning set-ups. But these tend to be expensive solutions. In the case of cinema halls and multiplexes, these devices would be the only way to ensure moviegoers can return without the fear of contracting the disease. Several cinema halls in large Indian cities like Delhi and Mumbai have already installed UV filters for indoor air.
Technology aside, ventilation, according to Pinto, continues to remain the most important and least expensive aspect of ideal indoor air quality.
The only way to ventilate, Gupta says, is to bring in outside air indoors. In rural or semi-urban healthcare centres, for instance, where resources and access to technology are limited, simply ensuring that a draft is created for air to pass through will mitigate the risk of Covid-19.
But in citiesespecially in schools that are now air-conditionedit is dangerous to have split air conditioners when there are over 30 people in one closed room. Schools are a hotbed for germs and contaminants and that is how our kids develop immunity, Gupta says. But this priority should be different in a post-Covid environment.
Gupta suggests that public places must follow the simple rule of dont share the air.
Split air conditioners are the worst innovation of our generation because unlike window ACs, these only cool and circulate indoor air, Gupta says.
And opening a window or turning on an exhaust fan may not be the most energy-efficient solution, but one that may be necessary. The other alternative is to add nano-filter sheets to existing air conditioners that filter out viruses and bacteria from indoor air to a great degree. Urban Indian homes, offices, and public places are now also familiar with the concept of an air purifier, which can be used around the year instead of only during peak pollution months.
Gupta suggests a four-point baseline protocol that should help improve indoor air quality:
1. While viruses cannot be monitored through a device, a simple CO2 filter will be able to detect if there is ample ventilation or the air indoors is stale.
2. With CO2, a PM2.5 monitor can detect how polluted the air is. This is doubly important in the context of Covid because viruses are likely to attach themselves to particulate matters and remain airborne.
3. Viruses thrive in cool conditions. Gupta says indoor spaces should maintain a temperature of 25C or above, even if it means sacrificing a little ambient comfort. This will also, in turn, make buildings more energy-efficient.
4. Viruses thrive in dry environments. Ideally, humidity levels of 50-60% should be maintained indoors.
But to truly make indoor spaces safe from Covid-19, many buildings need a complete overhaul.
It is sad that I havent seen too many buildings in India designed for human wellbeing, Gupta says. All this ventilation is basic stuff. Why wasnt this already followed over the last 30-40 years?-What is the role of an HVAC consultant if all of these mechanisms are not already in place?
He recommends that strict protocols will need to be put in place and the government would need to incentivise institutions to include ventilation in their blueprints. It is mind-boggling to see that we think we can get back to work safelyafter decades of cutting corners, Gupta says. Till these spaces can be made safer, masking up indoors is here to stay, coupled with keeping indoors sparsely occupied.
As a policy focus, countries have experimented with encouraging outdoor Covid-safe behaviour, such as restaurants on sidewalks. A significant proportion of indoor overcrowding occurs in religious places, gatherings in halls for events such as weddings and family functions, and in crowded workspaces, says Hinduja Hospitals Pinto. We need to try and actively encourage these interactions to move outdoors, or online, whenever feasible, with measures to shield individuals from the vagaries of the weather.
One year on: we look back at how the Forums networks have navigated the global response to COVID-19.
Using a multistakeholder approach, the Forum and its partners through its COVID Action Platform have provided countless solutions to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, protecting lives and livelihoods.
Throughout 2020, along with launching its COVID Action Platform, the Forum and its Partners launched more than 40 initiatives in response to the pandemic.
The work continues. As one example, the COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs is supporting 90,000 social entrepreneurs, with an impact on 1.4 billion people, working to serve the needs of excluded, marginalized and vulnerable groups in more than 190 countries.
Read more about the COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, our support of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemics Preparedness and Innovations (CEPI), and the COVAX initiative and innovative approaches to solve the pandemic, like our Common Trust Network aiming to help roll out a digital passport in our Impact Story.
From a public health perspective, Pinto says this will also bode well for India, which has close to a third of the worlds burden of tuberculosis, also a disease that spreads through ill-ventilated spaces. Even pre-Covid, we should have been cognizant of the need for better ventilation indoors, and an active move to open, well-ventilated spaces, he adds.
In the spring of 2020, as the novel coronavirus infiltrated the Twin Cities, Hinh Ly could not stop thinking about cats and dogs.
Dr. Ly, a veterinary and biomedical researcher at the University of Minnesota, knew that humans were the primary driver of the pandemic. But he also knew that many people loved to kiss and cuddle their pets, in sickness and in health. He wondered: How transmissible was SARS-CoV-2 to humankinds best friends?
In March of 2020, Dr. Ly learned that two dogs in Hong Kong had received positive P.C.R. tests for the virus. But these tests require the virus to be actively replicating and thus only reveal active infections. Swabbing the snouts of many pets struck Dr. Ly as an overly time-consuming way to figure out how easily the animals could be infected.
So he pitched an idea to his wife, Yuying Liang, a researcher in the same department who leads the lab with him, to test cats and dogs for antibodies, which would reveal past infection to the virus. I had the idea, but she is the boss, Dr. Ly said.
The result of those antibody tests, published recently in the journal Virulence, suggest that household cats are more susceptible than dogs to a SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Fortunately, infected cats appear to show mild symptoms at most. I am still a bit surprised that cats are so readily infected and yet rarely exhibit any signs of illness, said Dr. Angela Bosco-Lauth, a biomedical researcher at Colorado State Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences who was not involved with the research.
And there is still no evidence to suggest infected cats or dogs are a risk to people, said Dr. Jonathan Runstadler, a virologist at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University who has studied how the coronavirus affects animals but was not involved in the new work.
The new study supports recent research that it may be fairly common in households where people test positive for SARS-CoV-2 for cats and dogs to become infected, too, Dr. Runstadler said.
To test for pet antibodies, the Minnesota researchers needed the animals serum, the component of blood that contains antibodies. Dr. Ly reached out to Dr. Daniel Heinrich, director of the clinical pathology lab at the universitys veterinary center. (Dr. Henrich is also an author on the new study.) Pets passed through the center daily and had their blood tested for myriad reasons, including annual checkups, unrelated disease, peeing inappropriately on the wall, Dr. Ly said.
Those samples are usually discarded. But Dr. Heinrich asked pet owners to allow the serum to be used anonymously in the study, and the researchers got their first handful of samples in April.
The researchers initially screened roughly 100 samples, and found that about 5 percent of the cat serum contained coronavirus antibodies, whereas almost none of the dog serum did. To be safe, Dr. Ly tested hundreds more samples, drawing from blood collected in April, May and June, as Covid cases were rising in the region.
In the end, the scientists found that 8 percent of cats carried antibodies to the coronavirus, whereas less than 1 percent of dogs did, suggesting that cats were more susceptible to infection.
Because the pet owners granted consent anonymously, the researchers were unable to trace which humans might have transmitted the virus to the various cats and dogs. It was also unclear whether the infected pet cats lived indoors or outdoors, or how transmissible the virus was from cat to cat, Dr. Ly said.
The researchers do not know why cats seem to be more susceptible than dogs. One possibility relates to ACE2, a protein on the surface of cells that is a receptor for the coronavirus. The genetic sequence of the human ACE2 protein is much more similar to the equivalent sequence in cats than in dogs.
But animal behavior could be a factor as well. A recent study that presented similar findings that cats become infected by the coronavirus more readily than dogs noted that cats are often more welcome to sleep on beds than dogs are. Maybe it is because we cuddle the cats more, Dr. Ly speculated. Maybe we kiss the cats more.
Dr. Bosco-Lauth said she believes that pets are unlikely to contribute to the epidemiology of SARS-COV-2 in the long run. But theres still no way to know for sure.
For those people who test positive for Covid-19, Dr. Ly recommended distancing from not only humans, but cats and dogs. You cannot cuddle them, he said.
Dr. Ly and Dr. Liang do not have cats or dogs in their own home. They do have a tank of guppies, which appear, for the moment, to be quite safe from the coronavirus.
Coronavirus: Canada paves way for tourists to return starting in August - as it happened Financial Times
A man wearing a face mask walks past the Olympic Rings ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The Games are scheduled to begin this week in Japan despite a global rise in coronavirus cases. Toru Hanai/Getty Images hide caption
A man wearing a face mask walks past the Olympic Rings ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The Games are scheduled to begin this week in Japan despite a global rise in coronavirus cases.
Soccer player Megan Rapinoe, swimmer Katie Ledecky and gymnast Simone Biles are among the 11,000 athletes competing in the Tokyo Olympics beginning this week on July 23.
More than 600 athletes from across the U.S. are headed to Japan to represent Team USA, and they'll have to navigate the twists and turns of this year's unusual Olympic Games.
Because of coronavirus protocols, athletes are only allowed to check into the Olympic Village five days before their scheduled events. Not only do athletes have to adjust their internal body clocks to a time zone at least 13 hours ahead, but they also have to adapt to the high temperatures and humidity of the area. Training camps for the swim and weightlifting teams have been set up in Hawaii, where conditions are closer to that of Japan; the location presents its own challenges, though, as Tokyo is still 19 hours ahead of Hawaii.
To get accustomed to the new country, many Team USA athletes are training in Tokyo outside of the Olympic Village, at a center in Setagaya operated by the U.S. Olympic committee. The training base provides nutrition services, sports medicine and recovery services.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said on July 15 that there was "zero" risk of athletes passing on the virus to local residents.
But coronavirus cases are already popping up throughout the Olympic Village and within Team USA. Organizers say 55 people linked to the Olympics have tested positive for coronavirus since July 1, not including athletes.
At least two players on the South African soccer team were the first athletes to test positive inside the Olympic Village. American athletes, including tennis player Coco Gauff and a member of the men's basketball team, have withdrawn after positive COVID-19 tests. And most recently, an alternate in the U.S. Women's Gymnastics team tested positive as well.
"Our number one priority is everyone's health and safety," Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, told NPR's Ailsa Chang about preparing for this year's Games. Hirshland says her mission is to empower the athletes to achieve their full potential.
COVID-19 protocols in the Olympic Village are strict after Japan declared a state of emergency in Tokyo during the world's biggest sports event. For instance, teams have to reserve their places in the dining hall in advance so that it's not overcrowded. Along with daily testing and social distancing, a "soft quarantine" has been implemented wherein athletes are restricted to the Olympic venues, the village and designated hotels.
According to the International Olympic Committee, more than 80% of the athletes set to compete in Tokyo will be vaccinated against COVID-19. Team USA has been encouraged to get vaccinated, although Hirshland says it's not mandatory.
"We also believe that there are some individuals who have strong beliefs or concerns, and wanted to give everyone the opportunity to make that decision for themselves," she says.
She says that athletes who test positive for COVID-19 are replaced like they would be if they had an injury, while ensuring they are "healthy and safe."
Olympic traditions will look starkly different this year. Spectators are banned from Olympic events, including the opening ceremony, whose lively Parade of Nations will be more muted than usual as many athletes aren't even allowed to arrive in Japan until after the opening ceremony concludes. Once they do arrive and compete, winning athletes will also have to drape gold, silver or bronze medals over their own necks.
Hirshland says mental health is the organization's top priority this year, especially at a time when it's being tested in unique ways. One of those challenges was the Olympics getting postponed for a year because of the pandemic.
"It was incredibly difficult for athletes to adjust their mindset around another year of training. When you're training at the elite levels like this, the commitment, the discipline, and frankly the sacrifices to any sense of a normal life are pretty significant. To extend that for another year, that was a pretty substantial mountain to climb for our athlete population," Hirshland says.
Even though the environment of the Tokyo Olympics will be different from decades of Games past, there's still plenty of team spirit.
"We're still seeing signs of tall towers with American flags down the banisters and a whole lot of team pride. It still creates that incredibly special environment of recognizing that you're part of something that is truly global," Hirshland says.
And we're still likely to see many athletes achieve personal bests because of the extended training period, Hirshland says. "The resiliency of Team USA has just been extraordinary," she says. "I would tell you unequivocally: Team USA is ready."
Elena Burnett and Christopher Intagliata produced and edited the audio of this interview. Digital news intern Dalia Faheid adapted it for the web.
The Health and Human Services inspector general office tweeted on Monday that July 26-30 is whistleblower Appreciation Week. Whistleblowers play a critical role in keeping our government honest, efficient [and] accountable, said the tweet. We will share one #MythandFact each day during the week to help dispel myths about whistleblowers. It doesnt mention the novel coronavirus, but whistleblowers have been central to shedding light on gaps in the federal governments pandemic response. Here are some of the other recent headlines you might have missed.
The Smithsonian Institution is phasing out time entry passes and extending museum hours starting on Tuesday. Also, the Smithsonian will go back to pre-pandemic capacity levels at the museums and national zoo. There are still several health and safety measures in place, as outlined in a press release.
The National Archives is starting a limited reopening of its research rooms on August 2. [The National Archives and Records Administration] services will look very different from the services provided prior to COVID-19. Research visits will be by appointment only and will require a virtual consultation prior to the onsite visit, said a press release. Boxes of records will be pulled in advance and will be waiting at an assigned table. Research appointments will initially be for four to five hours total, depending on the location. In addition, we have implemented a number of measures to ensure the safety of our researchers and staff.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention affirmed in a statement on Friday that unaccompanied migrant children can enter the United States, which is an exception to a pandemic policy instituted by the Trump administration. The Biden administration temporarily made this exception in February and now the decision is solidified. There have been many calls recently for the administration to get rid of the policy altogether, claiming it is inhumane and/or not needed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
In a late-night ruling on Saturday, a federal appeals court allowed the CDC to enforce its more measured plan for resuming cruises, which was a setback for Floridas attempts to ramp up cruises, Politico reported. The appeals courts one-page order, issued just before midnight Saturday, offered no explanation for the decision beyond saying the federal government had made the requisite showing to obtain a stay allowing the CDC rules to remain in effect, said the report. The panel did indicate that one judge dissented.
In an interview with Reuters last week, the CDC defended the continued mandate to wear masks on public transportation, amid calls from Republicans to repeal it. I get we're all just over this emotionally. but I do think we will succeed together if we realize the virus is the enemy and it's not your fellow citizen or the person sitting next to you on a plane or a piece of cloth that you have to wear over your face, said Marty Cetron, director for the CDCs Division of Global Migration and Quarantine.
During the briefing on Friday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked if the Biden administration will be encouraging other groups to require vaccines for their employees or residents and she said, We believe that local communities, entities, organizations are going to make decisions about what they need to do to keep their community safe.
In a follow-up question the reporter asked, and what about for federal workers or members of the military? Psaki replied she had no news to share on that front.
Dr. Janet Woodcock, acting Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said at an event on Monday that domestic FDA inspections are back to normal, Politico reported.
Postal workers in Minnesota filed Occupational Safety and Health Administration complaints about their distribution center last year and the limited response to [Alejandra] Hernandez and her colleagues appeals for help provides a window into the failures of the Postal Service, one of the countrys largest employers, and OSHA, ProPublica reported. Postal workers have routinely sought help from OSHA during the pandemic, but their complaints have had little effect, said the report. Since February of last year, USPS employees across the country have filed more than 1,000 complaints alleging COVID-19-related hazards. Following those complaints, OSHA issued citations for four violations, all of which the Postal Service has contested. The USPS hasnt been obligated to make changes or pay penalties for any of the reported safety hazards.
The Defense Department inspector general published its quarter three COVID-19 oversight plan on Friday. There are six listed ongoing investigations, which includes how department contracting officials handled terminated contracts during the pandemic and how the department managed its vaccine distribution.
Upcoming: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki will give a briefing at 12:30 p.m.
Help us understand the situation better. Are you a federal employee, contractor or military member with information, concerns, etc. about how your agency is handling the coronavirus? Email us at newstips@govexec.com.
Six British athletes and two staff members are self-isolating after coming into close contact with an individual who tested positive for Covid-19 on their flight to Japan, the British Olympic Association said Sunday.
All eight tested negative at the airport and are now under the supervision of the British delegation's medical team, the association said in a statement
The individual who tested positive was not a member of the delegation.
Team Great Britain's chief of mission, Mark England, said that the news was disappointing but "respects" the protocols in place. "We will offer them every support during this period and we are hopeful they will be able resume training again soon," England said.
The rescheduledTokyo 2020 Gamesis set to begin on Friday, but the rising number of Covid-19 cases tied to the competition has fueled concerns as to whether the Olympics can be safely held during the ongoing pandemic.
Organizers announced this month that the Tokyo venues will not have spectators due to the city's coronavirus state of emergency an unprecedented move, according to an International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokesperson.
Teams from more than 200 countries are due to arrive in the city in the coming days. As of Friday, more than 15,000 Olympic individuals had entered Japan, according to Thomas Bach, president of the IOC. The Olympic Village, containing 21 residential buildings, will house about 11,000 athletes.
You can read more about the Olympic Village and its Covid-19 safety regulations here.
CNN's Jessie Yeung contributed reporting to this post.
Sixty percent of people being admitted to hospital with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, the government's chief scientific adviser has said.
Earlier, Sir Patrick Vallance told a news briefing that figure was for double-jabbed people. But he later corrected himself on Twitter, saying the original statistic was false.
He posted: "Correcting a statistic I gave at the press conference today, 19 July.
"About 60% of hospitalisations from COVID are not from double-vaccinated people, rather 60% of hospitalisations from COVID are currently from unvaccinated people."
Speaking at the briefing alongside Boris Johnson - who appeared remotely from Chequers where he is self-isolating - Sir Patrick said hospitalisations could rise to over 1,000 a day.
He added: "But the rates should be lower than they have been previously because of the protective effects of vaccination."
He said this was not surprising "because the vaccines are not 100% effective".
"They're very, very effective, but not 100%, and as a higher proportion of the population is double-vaccinated, it's inevitable that those 10% of that very large number remain at risk, and therefore will be amongst the people who both catch the infection and end up in hospital."
Meanwhile, most regions of England now have more coronavirus patients in hospital than at any point since mid-March.
Two regions - south-west England and the combined area of north-east England and Yorkshire - are back to levels last seen more than four months ago.
For England as a whole, there are now 3,813 patients in hospital with COVID-19 - the highest number since 24 March.
Sir Patrick also warned said there were "high levels of COVID and they are increasing".
He said the UK was quite close to the previous "winter wave" of infections.
"In the winter wave, we were up to around 60,000 people testing positive per day," he said.
"We are now somewhere on towards 50,000. So we're quite close to the size of the winter wave of infections and this is going to increase."
He said the timing of the next peak of the virus would be "uncertain".
He said: "But most of the models are suggesting that there should be a peak and start seeing some sort of either plateau or decrease over August.
"And at that point, if things continue to increase at the rate they are - and as I said at the outset, there is something like 50,000 or near 50,000 cases per day, or positives per day, at the moment being detected - with a doubling time of 11 days, you can see that that gets to pretty high numbers very quickly.
"And another doubling time will take you to even higher numbers, of course - that would be really quite, quite worrying. So we would like to see some flattening of this, some decrease in the trajectory, and ideally, as you rightly say, you'd like to see this coming down by September, as return of schools would add another pressure on top of that."
England's deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam added the uncertainty would be "driven by human behaviour over the next four to six weeks".
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He said: "So really, it is kind of in everybody's hands, yours and mine.
"If we are gradual and cautious, and we don't tear the pants out of this just because we're glad to have our full freedoms back, then we will materially affect the size and shape of the remainder of this epidemic curve and where the peak occurs, and how big it is.
"It is literally in the hands of the public, in terms of the behaviours."
Earlier today, it was brought to our attention that two of the members at that meeting tested positive for COVID-19, Symone Sanders, a senior adviser for Harris, said in a statement. Based on the timeline of these positive tests, it was determined the Vice President and her staff present at the meeting were not at risk of exposure because they were not in close contact with those who tested positive and therefore do not need to be tested or quarantined.
Sanders added that Harris and her staff are fully vaccinated.
The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions most recent guidance says fully vaccinated people do not need to wear a mask or socially distance unless required by law, or local or business guidance. Fully vaccinated individuals who are potentially exposed to the coronavirus do not need to be tested, the guidance says, unless they experience symptoms, but should monitor their health for two weeks.
The CDC guidance does, however, require mask-wearing on planes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation. Many of the Texas Democrats did not appear to wear one on their charter flights to D.C., which some Republicans pointed out even before the positive tests.
The statement from the Texas House Democrats did not identify which three members had tested positive, but said all three were fully vaccinated. The cases were first reported by the Austin American-Statesman.
"We are in touch with public health experts in Texas to provide additional guidance," Texas House Democratic Chair Chris Turner said in the statement. "Our caucus will follow all recommendations from public health experts as we continue our work.
State Rep. Celia Israel, who represents an Austin-area district, told POLITICO that she had tested positive.
It just feels like I have a cold, she said in a brief phone interview. Israel added that she was fully vaccinated, and would be isolating in her hotel room for at least the next 10 days. She said that several members of the delegation had dropped off food for her.
In an additional statement, Israel said she took a test on Friday after being notified that another member of the caucus had tested positive and tested negative, before subsequently testing positive on Saturday.
Let this be a reminder that COVID-19 is still very much among us, with infection rates on the rise and more contagious variants spreading nationwide, she said in the statement, urging unvaccinated people to get a shot. "Most importantly, I hope this instance highlights the sacrifices we're willing to make for the cause of democracy. I would not change anything to protect the right to vote."
House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican who has railed against the Democrats for leaving the state, wished those that tested positive good health in a tweet: Kim and I extend our prayers for safety and health for the members of the Texas House Democratic Caucus who tested positive for COVID-19 while in Washington, D.C.
TOKYO, July 18 (Reuters) - The Tokyo 2020 Olympics, postponed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, will be held under unprecedented conditions and tight quarantine rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections.
Yet a number of cases have emerged involving athletes and other people involved with the Games.
The following is a list to date, in chronological order.
JUNE 20 - A coach with Uganda's squad tests positive on arrival at Narita airport and is quarantined at a government-designated facility. The rest of the team heads by bus for their host city, Izumisano near Osaka in western Japan.
JUNE 23 - A Ugandan athlete tests positive, Izumisano officials said.
JULY 4 - A member of Serbia's Olympic rowing team tests positive on arrival. The other four team members are isolated as close contacts.
JULY 9 - One Lithuanian and one Israeli athlete test positive, according to reports. Later reports say the Lithuanian's results were unclear and subsequently tested negative.
JULY 14 - A masseur for the Russian women's rugby sevens team tests positive, forcing the team into isolation for two days, the RIA news agency reports. Officials in Munakata, southwestern Japan, confirmed one staff member was hospitalised and said none of the team members could be considered close contacts.
- The refugee Olympic team delayed its arrival in Japan following a positive case with a team official in Doha. The infected official is in quarantine without symptoms and 26 of the 29 refugees will remain in their Doha training camp.
- Seven staff at a hotel in Hamamatsu, central Japan, where dozens of Brazilian athletes are staying, have tested positive, a city official said.
- Twenty-one members of the South African rugby team are in isolation after they are believed to have been in close contact with a case on their flight.
JULY 15 - Eight athletes from the Kenya women's rugby team were classified as close contacts after a positive coronavirus case was found on their flight to Tokyo, said an official with the southwestern city of Kurume, where they were set to hold a training camp.
- U.S. basketball star Bradley Beals Olympic dream was cut short when USA Basketball announced the Washington Wizards star will miss the Tokyo Games after he entered coronavirus protocols at the training camp in Las Vegas.
- An Olympic athlete under a 14-day quarantine period tested positive for the virus, but had not yet moved to the Olympic Village, the organising committee's website reported, without giving further details. They said one member of the Games personnel and four Tokyo 2020 contractors had also tested positive.
JULY 16 - Australian tennis player Alex de Minaur tested positive for COVID-19 prior to his departure for the Tokyo Olympics, the Australian Olympic Committee said.
- A member of the Nigerian Olympics delegation who tested positive for the coronavirus at Narita airport on Thursday has been admitted to a hospital, media said. The person, in their 60s, had only light symptoms but was hospitalised because of their advanced age and pre-existing conditions, TV Asahi said, adding it was the first COVID-19 hospitalisation of an Olympics-related visitor. No further details were available.
- An Olympic-related non-resident under a 14-day quarantine period tested positive for the virus, the organisers' website said, without giving further details. Three Tokyo 2020 contractors, all of whom are residents of Japan, also tested positive, organisers said.
JULY 17 - 15 people tested positive for the virus, the organisers said, including the first case at the athletes' village, who is a visitor from abroad and is involved in organising the Games. The rest are two members of the media, seven contractors and five members of the Games personnel.
JULY 18 - Ten people, including two athletes staying at the athletes' village, tested positive for the virus, the organisers said. This is the first time athletes have been found positive within the village, where most competitors will be staying.
The others were one athlete under a 14-day quarantine period, one member of the media, one contractor and five Games personnel. All of the 10 are non-residents of Japan.
Reporting by Elaine Lies, Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Michael Perry, Lincoln Feast and Kim Coghill
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