Coronavirus may interfere with Russian team plans to take part in 2020 Olympics

"The situation around the coronavirus causes alarm," the ROC president admitted. "It is not without reason that the Tokyo-2020 Organizing Committee has set up a working group. Although the International Olympic Committee has expressed confidence that the coronavirus won’t disrupt the 2020 Olympic Games, this situation may make us adjust our plans," he said.

Pozdnyakov also expressed confidence that the Russian athletes won’t boycott the event. "I don’t think that a boycott is possible. We are not considering a different development of the events, we definitely must go, since in accordance with the Olympic Charter a boycott of the competitions is punished by an eight-year isolation. Non-participation of a national Olympic Committee for any reasons will be punished by an eight-year term, and this is not what we want," the ROC president stressed.

On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, a large economic and industrial hub in central China populated by 11 million people. On January 7, 2020, Chinese experts identified the infecting agent as coronavirus 2019-nCoV. At least 25 countries have reported infection cases, including Russia. The WHO declared the outbreak an international public health emergency. According to the latest data from China’s National Health Commission, the number of coronavirus cases in China topped 28,000. More than 560 people died, while more than 1,380 people have recovered by Thursday.