Member of Uganda's Olympic team tests positive for coronavirus

Members of the Ugandan Olympic team.
(Image credit: Badru Katumba/AFP via Getty Images)

Upon arriving in Japan on Saturday, a member of Uganda's Olympic team tested positive for the coronavirus.

This is the first incoming athlete to test positive for the virus. A government official told Japan's Asahi newspaper that all of Uganda's Olympic athletes are fully vaccinated, having received the AstraZeneca vaccine, and tested negative for COVID-19 before leaving for Japan. The team member who tested positive has not been identified, and is now in quarantine. On Sunday, the athlete's teammates were able to leave Tokyo for the host town Osaka. The Ugandan team is the second to arrive in Japan, after Australia's women's softball team.

The Tokyo Games will start on July 23. The coronavirus is still spreading across Japan, where only 6 percent of the population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but the government maintains that it is safe to hold the Olympics during a pandemic. Japan makes visitors traveling from overseas quarantine for two weeks, but the Olympians do not have to follow these same border controls, The Associated Press reports. The Olympic events will not be open to foreign visitors, and on Monday, organizers will decide if local fans will be allowed in the stands.

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Catherine Garcia

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.