International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach says his organisation is ready to send medical staff to the Tokyo Olympics to support coronavirus countermeasures.
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The IOC and local organisers are pressing ahead with the Games due to start on July 23 despite rock-solid opposition in Japan amid the pandemic.
Bach told a video conference the IOC planned to dispatch additional medical personnel "to support the medical operations and the strict implementation of COVID-19 countermeasures in the Olympic Village and Olympic venues."
The IOC chief's words come at a time when doctors and nurses in Japan have expressed strong opposition to the Games with hospitals overwhelmed by rising numbers of coronavirus infections.
Governors of Ibaraki and Chiba prefectures neighbouring Tokyo also said they have no plan to provide hospital beds to Olympians infected with the coronavirus.
Tokyo has been under another COVID-19 state of emergency since late April as the Japanese capital has been struggling to curb a fourth wave of infections.
The measure has also been imposed on eight other prefectures and it is scheduled to end on May 31.
Bach said more than 80 per cent of the residents in the Olympic Village will be vaccinated by the time of the Olympics.
"The most important principle is very clear: The Olympic Village is a safe place and Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 will be organised in a safe way," Bach said.
"We must concentrate on the delivery of these safe and secure Olympic Games because the opening ceremony is only 65 days away," he said.
Australian Associated Press
