Coronavirus: Japan ends Olympic flame display

The torch was lit back in Greece and arrived in Japan on March 20.

The Olympic flame in Japan will be removed from display as the country enters into a state of emergency due to the coronavirus outbreak, revealed by the officials on Tuesday. In the historic turn of events, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was also postponed to next year.

The Olympic torch was on public display on the Northeastern side of Fukushima region but the organisers decided to remove it with the death toll rising in Japan due to coronavirus pandemic.

The flame was lit back in Greece and arrived in Japan on March 20 for the famous torch relay. However, things did not go as per plan with the deadly pandemic bringing the world to a standstill and decisions of postponing the Olympics next year was taken. Now the opening ceremony is tipped to take place on July 23, 2021.

However the organiser wanted to keep the spirit of Olympics high among the people and therefore it was decided to maintain the flame in Fukushima, where actually the scheduled torch relay was going to happen.

"Originally we wanted to hold the public display until the end of April. But considering recent developments, we decided to stop," said a Tokyo 2020 organising committee spokesman.

However, the spokesman refused to mention where the torch will be kept and also cleared the air by mentioning that the organisers have no plan to put it up on display anytime soon as they hope to prevent people from crowding near the storage location.

Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan announced the state of emergency which should give the local people more reason to stay at home with businesses also closing with immediate effect in the country.

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