Tokyo 2020 Olympics chiefs under fire for giving Games green light despite coronavirus outbreak

Olympic chiefs have come under fire for insisting Tokyo 2020 will go ahead despite the impact of the coronavirus.

Organisers have repeatedly said the Games are not under threat, even though 1,500 people have died from the virus in China and a number of cases have been reported in Japan.

But Dr John Ashton, the former director of public health for North West England, said the Olympic officials should be “thinking the unthinkable”.

He told The Telegraph that playing down fears was “counterproductive and you end up with exactly what you tried to avoid. You end up with panic because people worry about what they are not being told.”

He added: “I think there’s no way they’d stop it right now but they need a plan of what to do if it does build up momentum. They might have events without audiences.”