"We continue uninterrupted with preparations for the Olympics as scheduled, while collaborating closely with the IOC, the organizing committee, and the Metropolitan Government of Tokyo," said Yoshihide Suga, the government spokesperson, at a press conference on Wednesday.
Suga also thanked the "efforts" of the IOC Executive Board, which issued a statement the day before expressing its commitment "to the success of the Games that will take place from July 24 to August 9" in the Japanese capital.
The IOC Executive Board, meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, ratified the planned dates, while indicating that it will always heed the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Rumors about a hypothetical change of dates for the Games due to the coronavirus outbreak resurfaced on Tuesday following statements by Seiko Hashimoto, the Japanese Minister for the Olympics, who pointed to this possibility under the agreement signed between the IOC and the Japanese authorities.
This agreement specifies that the IOC only has the power to cancel the Tokyo Games if there is no option to organize them in 2020, which "could be interpreted as the possibility of postponing the Olympics" as long as it is this year, the minister said in her speech to a parliamentary committee.
Since January, when cases of COVID-19 began to be detected outside of China, the epicenter of the outbreak, both the Japanese government and the organizing committee have emphasized that the epidemic does not alter the plans to host Tokyo 2020.
However, the spread of the virus has already led to the cancellation of qualifying competitions for the Games in several countries, and the travel restrictions imposed by more and more national authorities pose a growing logistical challenge.
The organizers and the IOC are in "constant contact" with the WHO, said the spokesperson for the Japanese government, who also mentioned the creation of a "task force" to analyze the latest developments related to the new coronavirus and "ensure a safe Games".