Olympic torch runs through empty park in Osaka as COVID cases rise

The International Olympic Committee announced that the torch relay for the Tokyo Olympics ran through a mostly empty Osaka city park on Tuesday.

While the globe is struggling with COVID-19, Tokyo authorities prepare for the upcoming Olympic Games. The traditional torch is in Osaka today, but local showing the risks of trying to hold the postponed games during a corona crisis.

The torch relay came on the same day that the PM Suga said new coronavirus cases in Osaka hit 1,099, a single-day record for Japan’s second-largest metropolitan area.

A symbol of the upcoming sports event, the torch relay, began three weeks ago in northeastern Japan, attempting to navigate around the pandemic with a total of 10,000 runners crisscrossing the country and bound for the opening ceremony on July 23 in Tokyo.