by BERNAMA / Pic by AFP

TOKYO – The organising committee of the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo has decided to further limit the number of officials from overseas accompanying athletes, to 41,000, which is a third of the initial figure, chief of the Games’ main operation centre Hidemasa Nakamura said on Friday, reported Sputnik.

In May, the organising committee said that 59,000 overseas-based officials and staff would be permitted to attend the sporting event instead of the initially planned 141,000.

“As for those accompanying… we recalculated and came to the figure of 41,000. Thus, this is a third of the original plans,” Nakamura said at a press conference.

At the same time, the number of athletes will remain the same, 19,000, the official noted.

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, initially scheduled for 2020, were postponed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Games are currently due to take place from July 23 to Aug 8. The event will be held without spectators from overseas, while the decision on domestic spectators is expected later in June.