COVID-19: Southeast Asian Games 2021 in Vietnam postponed to 2022

The Southeast Asian Games (SEA) in Vietnam has been postponed due to ongoing COVID-19, the Olympic Council of Malaysia said on Thursday.

The 31st SEA Games was earlier scheduled from November 21 to December 2, 2021.

"The SEA Games Federation which met today agreed to postpone the organisation of the 31st SEA Games 2021 to year 2022," an official statement read.

"The SEA Games Federation members praised the work done thus far by the Vietnam Organising Committee but took note of the current conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic in the South-East Asian region," it added.

A new date will now be determined by the SEA Games Federation Council.

Meanwhile, Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Thursday made a decision to place Tokyo under the fourth state of emergency for the duration of the upcoming Olympics to curb a recent rise in COVID-19 cases.

The Tokyo Olympics were postponed last year and are now scheduled to take place from July 23. The state of emergency will come into force on July 12 and will remain till August 22.

"We are hoping to keep people from moving around during the summer break and the Bon holidays until vaccinations move further along," Kyodo News quoted Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of the nation's COVID-19 response, as saying

According to Kyodo News, the Japanese government had initially planned to keep Tokyo under a quasi-state of emergency but had to change the decision due to a sharp rise in coronavirus cases.

On Wednesday, the Tokyo metropolitan government had reported 920 new virus cases, marking the highest daily figure since mid-May.

( With inputs from ANI )

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