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Chinese athletes competing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics arrive at Narita Airport near Tokyo on Monday. (Reuters/Yonhap News)

With the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics just four days away, fear is rising with COVID-19 cases reported at the athletes' village. Japan has pledged a safe and secure competition, but holes have appeared in its quarantine system even before the opening ceremony.

The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games on Sunday said two athletes at Tokyo Olympic Village tested positive for COVID-19, the first cases reported at the facility. This was after the committee confirmed the day earlier that an Olympic staff member had tested positive. Thus, the number of infections related to the games rose to 55.

Understandably, Japan is in a state of anxiety. The daily Mainichi Shimbun on July 18 said a phone survey of 1,087 voters nationwide conducted the day before found that 65% believe Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's pledge of a "safe and secure hosting of the Olympics" is impossible. Just 19% said the opposite.

The organizing committee and the Japanese government have pledged a "quarantine bubble" for the games based on the "Orlando bubble" model used by the US National Basketball Association (NBA). Last year, the NBA held its playoffs at Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida, in isolation from the outside world. This inspired the Japanese media to use the term "quarantine bubble," as they likened it to water droplets.

The committee has taken a variety of measures toward hosting a "bubble Olympics." For example, participants entering Japan are taken by a committee-provided taxi to their hotels for three days of isolation. They cannot take public transportation or have non-essential contact with people in Japan for two weeks. For this purpose, five apps allowing tracking of a person's location must be installed upon their entry to Japan.

Protesters gather in front of the State Guest House, Akasaka Palace, in central Tokyo, where a welcoming event for International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach was being held, to show their opposition to holding the Olympics on Sunday. (AP/Yonhap News)

The problem is that the committee has no practical way of controlling participants. With an estimated 15,000 participants from 205 countries taking part in the Olympics, cases have already been reported at the athletes' village. Other participants like media personnel and volunteers raise the number higher, but they lack quarantine rules, let alone places to gather. The committee has assigned guards at hotel entrances, but recognizing guests can prove difficult. At one hotel, one could not get related information until after identifying oneself as an Olympic participant to a guard.

The situation was different in Orlando. At the time, 22 NBA teams were in the playoffs. Disneyworld, with plenty of resorts inside, could limit the space and radius of activity by participants, handling accommodations and dining internally and separating participants from people outside of the bubble. Thus, the league could complete its season with no additional infections.

The committee recently sent an email on the quarantine problem to the COVID-19 liaison of every delegation, warning of strong action against violators of COVID-19 rules. Though the email said, "Japanese media recently reported seeing an Olympic official drinking late at night in Tokyo. We will take tough measures against anyone who is caught," it seemed more like a gesture of begging than a warning. The bubble Olympics in Tokyo thus seems more like a volatile bubble that could burst at any time rather than a perimeter safe from the coronavirus.

By Lee Jun-hee, staff reporter

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