A second member on the Uganda Olympic team in Japan has tested positive for Covid-19 according to a media release by the general secretary of the Uganda Olympic Committee, Beatrice Ayikoru.
Today, we have learnt that a second member of our Team Uganda has tested positive for COVID-19. The member is asymptomatic and being looked after by the health authorities in Izumisano.
The rest of the team is well and continues to acclimatize in Izumisano. We remain firmly committed and focused on ensuring the safety and wellness of our team and working together with all relevant authorities.
Beatrice Ayikoru, UOC General Secretary – Chef De Mission Tokyo 2020 Games
This comes after boxing coach Patrick Lihanda tested positive for the deadly virus upon arrival.
Lihanda has thus barred entry into Japan, as the other eight members on the team left early on Sunday by chartered bus for the host town of Osaka in central Japan.
This was the first detected infection among athletes arriving for the Tokyo Games opening in five weeks.
Uganda’s first batch had five athletes (three boxers and one Swimmer and a weight lifter) as it was officially flagged off by the Minister of State for Sports, Hamson Obua at Lugogo in Kampala on Friday, 18th June.
The national boxing team (Bombers) Musa Shadir Bwogi, David Ssemujju were joined by a female boxer Catherine Nanziri.
Others were weight lifter Julius Ssekitoleko and free style swimmer Ambala Atuhaire.
This group was led by David Katende Ssemakula, the Assistant General Secretary at National Council of Sports (NCS), Hakim Ssempereza (Weight lifting coach) as well as two boxing coaches Meddie Mulandi, and Patrick Lihanda.
Uganda is seeing an alarming rise in COVID-19 variants and has just tightened lockdown measures with a nationwide lockdown and strict curfew.
There has been no lockdown in Japan. The so-called emergencies, which have lasted for most of this year, focus on having restaurants and stores close early, limiting crowd size at venues, and asking people to social distance, work from home, and wear masks.
The vaccination rate in Japan is the slowest among developed nations, with about 6 percent of the population fully vaccinated.
Although the rollout is gradually picking up, most people are unlikely to be fully vaccinated ahead of the Olympics.
More than 14,000 people have died from the coronavirus in Japan.
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