Two athletes tested positive for the coronavirus in the Tokyo Olympic Games Village, just six days before the showpiece international sports event kicks off, officials said on Sunday, according to an AFP report.

The two athletes were from the same country and competing in the same sport but the organisers did not give further details.

 “A daily tally of new cases revealed two athletes tested positive in the Village and one elsewhere. They come a day after an unidentified person, who was not a competitor, became the first case in the Village,” the report said.

Apart from the three athletes, infections were confirmed for seven others amongst whom five were Tokyo Games staff members, one contract worker and one journalist. This has taken the total number of Covid-19 cases announced by the organizing committee since July 1 to 55.

Close to 7,000 athletes and officials are scheduled to stay at the for the 2020 Games which have been delayed by a year due to the raging pandemic.

The Tokyo Olympics, which will be held largely without spectators have been widely criticised in Japan and opinion polls show that people are against holding the games as they fear that the arrival of foreigners in large numbers would lead to a surge in the Covid wave which is already taking its toll.

Coronavirus infections are on the rise in Japan with Tokyo, the host city for the Olympic Games registering over 1,000 fresh cases of the disease for four days in a row.

Also read: First Covid-19 case surfaces at Olympic Games Village in Tokyo