Japan declares state of emergency in Tokyo ahead of Olympics

The Prime Minister said: "Taking into consideration the effect of coronavirus variants and not to let the infections spread again to the rest of the nation, we need to strengthen our countermeasures.

"Given the situation, we will issue a state of emergency for Tokyo."

It is set to be announced later on Thursday whether any fans will be able to attend the events. The Olympic Games are scheduled to take place in the Japanese capital between 23 July and 8 August. The Paralympic Games are between 24 August and 5 September. The BBC reports that the announcement was made after the organising committee of the Tokyo games met with the government and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, Thomas Bach. On Wednesday , Japan recorded 2,810 new cases , with 920 of these in Tokyo. Over the past 15 months the country has coped well with the pandemic, registering relatively low case numbers and a death toll of around 14,900. However the vaccination rollout in Japan has been slow, with only 15% of the country's population having been fully vaccinated. There is also concern over the Delta variant first detected in India.