At a media conference last night, Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga announced the declaration of a COVID-19 state of emergency for Tokyo, as infections of the Delta variant of the disease continued to increase strongly.

Olympics Minister Tamayo Marukawa further stated that spectators will be barred from Olympic events during the 12 July - 22 August timeframe of the state of emergency, which encompasses all Olympics dates.

IOC insists the Games go ahead as planned, with or without spectators.

Prior to yesterday's announcement, Olympic organizers had intended to permit 50% capacity of stadiums and arenas to be occupied by local fans.

Now, spectatorless events are scheduled to open on 23 July.

More than 3.5M Olympics tickets were sold in Japan, most of which could still have been used by locals until yesterday's announcement. Presumably organizers will be handing out refunds.

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