TOKYO Olympic organizers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are to unveil new plans this week to explain how 15,400 Olympic and Paralympic athletes can compete in Japan when the Games open in three months in the midst of a pandemic.

The rollout of the second edition of the “Playbooks” — an IOC guidebook explaining how the Games can be pulled off — comes as Tokyo, Osaka and several other areas have been placed under a third state of emergency as coronavirus cases surge.

Japan, which has attributed about 10,000 deaths to COVID-19, has also been slow with local vaccination with about 1 percent so far getting shots.

Organizers are expected to announce daily testing for athletes. They are also expected to drop a 14-day quarantine requirement, allowing athletes to train when they arrive. Athletes will be required to stay within a “bubble” consisting of the Olympic Village on Tokyo Bay, and venues and training areas.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency, citing unnamed sources, said athletes and staff will have to be tested twice within 96 hours before leaving home. They will also be tested upon arrival in Japan.

A final edition of all Playbooks will be published in June.

Toshiro Muto, CEO of the Tokyo organizing committee, said Monday that 500 nurses were being requested for the Games. “Of course, this is on the premise that this won’t have a negative effect on the local health care system,” Muto said, though he did not indicate if any research had been done in this area.

Resistance to the Olympics in Japan is still running high with 70-80 percent opposed in recent polls. Overseas fans have already been barred, and organizers have put off until as late as June a decision on having any fans at all at Olympic venues.(SD-Agencies)