Tokyo Olympic venues won't have spectators

Tokyo venues for the summer Olympics will not have spectators, officials said after Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga confirmed the pandemic-delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics will take place under a coronavirus state of emergency.

Here's what else we know:

The White House reaffirmed its support for US athletes traveling to Tokyo, Japan, to compete in the Olympics later this month after Japan's Olympics Committee announced all spectators will be banned from the Tokyo venues at the 2020 Olympic Games. 

“The President supports the Tokyo Olympic Games and the public health measures necessary to protect athletes, staff, and spectators. He has pride in the US athletes who have trained for Tokyo Games and will be competing in the best traditions of the Olympic spirit,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Thursday. 

Japan on Thursday also declared a coronavirus state of emergency for Tokyo amid increasing cases.

The US is in “close contact” with the Japanese government on planning and public health measures.

She reiterated a statement from first lady Jill Biden’s office that the White House is “still assessing the feasibility” of her attendance at the games, noting that the advance team arrives in Tokyo later this week.

With a surge in Covid-19 cases and the country lagging behind in vaccinations, Japan should have canceled the Tokyo Olympics, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University, told CNN's John King,

"Japan probably should have canceled this Olympics as big a decision as that would have been and as disappointing as that would be to the Japanese people," Reiner said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci expressed confidence in Covid-19 safety protocols at the forthcoming Olympics in Tokyo and suggested that he was not concerned about first lady Jill Biden’s potential attendance at the Games.  

His comments come after Japan's Olympics Committee announced all spectators will be banned from the Tokyo venues at the 2020 Olympic Games. Japan on Thursday also declared a coronavirus state of emergency for Tokyo amid increasing cases. 

Fauci noted “quite strict and stringent” protocols in place for the athletes, which he described as “quite impressive.” 

President Joe Biden suggested last week that his wife was likely to attend the Games, telling reporters, “We’re trying to work that out now. That’s the plan.”

Olympic and Tokyo officials say that if the rate of infections changes, they will hold a meeting to review spectator capacity for the Paralympic Games.

The group is made up of the the Government of Japan, the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

In a joint statement, the officials said they will make a decision about spectators at the Paralympic Games when the Olympic Games are over.

"The IOC and IPC, respecting this decision, support it in the interest of safe and secure Games for everybody," it added.

The officials said "all five parties deeply regret for the athletes and for the spectators that this measure had to be put in place," referring to the decision to bar fans from the Olympics in Tokyo and keep a state of emergency order in place for the entire duration of the Games.

Japan started inoculating its population of 126 million people with Pfizer-BioNTech shots more than two months after the vaccine rolled out in countries such as the United States and United Kingdom. And after four months, only 15% of its population is fully vaccinated.

With one of the lowest rates of vaccine confidence in the world, the government says its deliberately cautious movement on vaccine approval is to build public trust.

"I think it is more important for the Japanese government to show the Japanese people that we have done everything possible to prove the efficacy and the safety of the vaccine — to encourage the Japanese people to take the vaccine," said Taro Kono, the minister in charge of Japan's coronavirus vaccine rollout. "At the end of the day, we might have started slower, but we thought it would be more effective."

A history of scandals:

Japan's vaccine resistance dates back to the 1970s, when two infants died within 24 hours after receiving the combined diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough) vaccination. The vaccine was temporarily suspended but confidence had already been rattled. For several years, infant vaccination rates fell, leading to a rise in cases of whooping cough.

In the late 1980s, there was another scare with the introduction of a Japanese-produced measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. After court action and a hefty damages payout, the combined shot was discontinued in 1993 and replaced with individual vaccines.

Read more on this history here.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics — which were rescheduled to this year because of Covid-19 —will not be the first time Japan has hosted the event. In 1964, Tokyo hosted the Summer Olympics, which also happened to be the first time the Olympics had ever been held in Asia.

Despite being the Summer Olympics, the Games were held in October to avoid the heat and humidity, along with the typhoon season in September.

Japan later hosted two Winter Olympics in 1972 and 1998.

Here's a look back at the 1964 event:

View more photos here.

Japan has recorded at least 814,315 cases and 14,865 deaths due to coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic as of today, according to CNN's global cases and deaths tracker.

"The number of infected cases in the area including Tokyo has been increasing since the end of last month," Japanese Prime Minister Yoshide Suga said.

"The number of severe cases and bed occupancy rate continues to be on the low level, but considering the impact of variants, we need to enhance countermeasures so that the infection will not spread nationwide," he added.

Only 15.1% of Japan's population is fully vaccinated, according to CNN's global vaccine tracker. The country is lagging behind Western countries in rolling out its vaccination drive, with 47% in the United States and nearly 50% in the UK fully vaccinated.

With more than four months since the vaccine rollout began in Japan, about 52,643,860 doses have been administered in total as of Tuesday.