Japan鈥檚 prime minister thanked people for helping the country safely hold the Olympics despite the difficulties of the coronavirus pandemic.
He noted the Games were delayed by a year and held under tight restrictions, but 鈥淚 believe we were able to fulfill our responsibility as the host nation,鈥� Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said, thanking the people for their understanding and cooperation.
The 17-day Summer Olympics were played mostly without spectators. Athletes stayed in an isolation bubble, quickly donned masks off their field of play and had to leave Japan soon after their competitions ended.
But the Games were a testament to perseverance, and as Suga noted in praising Japanese athletes for the nation鈥檚 record 58 medals, 鈥淪ome won medals and others didn鈥檛, but all their performances were moving.鈥�
Suga spoke about the Olympics at a ceremony in Nagasaki on Monday that marked the 76th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the Japanese city.
Suga has been criticized as forcing the Games on a Japanese public that didn鈥檛 want them to be held during the pandemic.
Japan has counted 1 million infections and more than 15,700 deaths from COVID-19, faring better than many countries, but the delta variant is causing many recent cases and accelerating the spread of the virus.
Tokyo鈥檚 new daily cases have more than doubled during the Olympics, with 2,884 recorded Monday for a prefectural total of 252,169 cases. With Tokyo hospitals filling up with serious cases, nearly 18,000 people with mild cases are isolating at home.
Surveys of public opinion show support for Suga鈥檚 government is steadily declining, a trajectory the governing party hopes the end of the Olympics will reverse before elections that are expected in the fall.
鈥擬ari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press
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