Olympic Torch relay taken off the street as cases rise in Tokyo

The Tokyo Olympic torch relay was taken off the street in Hiroshima as Covid-19 cases rise in Japan barely 10 weeks before the opening ceremony. The Governor of Hiroshima said that a ceremony next week without the relay is likely to still take place as this is the 6th change of plans in the relay in the last several weeks. The torch relay began on March 25 in northeastern Japan and is scheduled to end on July 23 at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Tokyo. Tokyo and its suburbs are in a state of emergency until May 31. Japan has about 11,000 deaths due to the pandemic but new cases of the virus and its variants are now increasing in Tokyo as the opening ceremony is less than 2 months away.