Covid-19 countermeasures for Olympics to cost some $1.3b: Kyodo, Asia News

Covid-19 countermeasures for Olympics to cost some .3b: Kyodo, Asia News

TOKYO  – Tokyo Games organisers estimate the cost of Covid-19 countermeasures for next year’s rearranged Olympics will run to around 100 billion yen (S$1.3 billion), Kyodo News reported on Monday (Nov 30).

Japanese media had reported a day earlier that the total costs of delaying the Games for a year would run to 200 billion yen.

When asked to comment on the Kyodo report, a spokesman for organisers told Reuters an announcement would be made on an interim report following talks between Tokyo 2020, Tokyo metropolitan government and the Japanese government on Wednesday.

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The last official budget given by the organising committee in December 2019, months before the Games were postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, was $12.6 billion (S$17 billion).

The International Olympic Committee have said they expect to pay $800 million in additional costs from the delay but Japan-based organisers have not provided a specific figure.

The Tokyo 2020 organising committee is expected to officially announce an adjusted budget before the end of the year.

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