2020 Olympics officially postponed amid COVID-19 fears

By Muhammed Enes Calli

ANKARA (AA) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Japanese government agreed to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Olympics for one year as the world grapples with the impact of coronavirus, the committee said in a statement on Tuesday.

''In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO [World Health Organization] today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021,'' the statement noted.

The IOC also added that the Olympic flame will stay in Japan and the games will remain to be called as ''the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.''

The virus known as COVID-19 which emerged in Wuhan, China last December, has spread to at least 169 countries and regions around the globe. The WHO has declared the outbreak a pandemic.

According to data compiled by U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University, the tally of confirmed cases worldwide is currently over 392,500, with a death toll exceeding 17,000.

So far, nearly 103,000 people diagnosed with COVID-19 have recovered from the disease.