Amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has announced that it will not send its team to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to pandemic across the world. It is said that the Olympic game has been postponed to 2021.
The news was confirmed by AOC Chief Executive Matt Carroll. Matt Carroll said that the decision has been taken in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
AOC’s executive board took the decision without waiting for a response from the International Olympic Committee due to the critical situation over the pandemic in recent days.
Carroll’s comments came after Canada declared that it’s team would not participate in the Olympics and Paralympics in the summer of 2020.
“We’ve had to make a call now because of the situation here in Australia and other parts of the world,” Carroll told reporters in Sydney on Monday.”We’ve had to make a call now because of the situation here in Australia and other parts of the world,” Carroll told reporters in Sydney on Monday.
“But the IOC is still working through their final decision-making.”
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also said that this is the first time when the Tokyo Olympic games are being postponed due to the coronavirus epidemic which was supposed to be held on July 24. The IOC held an emergency meeting to discuss the Olympic games which are scheduled to take place on July 24.
The entire world is in a state of shock after the novel coronavirus pandemic impacted lakhs of people’s lives. By far, the virus has affected over 3 lakh people globally and the global death toll has risen to at least 14,000. Thankfully, over 85,000 people have recovered from the deadly outbreak.
COVID-19 has created an atmosphere of fear in the world. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak as a ‘pandemic’. So far, there have been more than 400 confirmed cases of the virus in India as per the health ministry.
