Paris 2024 rules out, for time being, wearing of masks against Covid-19

Paris (France), Jul 21 (EFE) - The president of the Organizing Committee of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Tony Estanguet, ruled out, for the moment, the wearing of masks, despite the likely rise of covid-19 in sensitive areas such as the Olympic Village, which will host up to 14,500 people including athletes and technical staff.

“There is no recommendation to reinforce the device. We have a health plan ready to activate it, if necessary, but the recommendation is that the ordinary health plan continues, which is based, especially, on good hand hygiene,” said Estanguet on Sunday, five days before the start of the Games.

CAMERA: EDGAR SAPIÑA MANCHADO/TERESA SUAREZ

FOOTAGE OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR THE PARIS 2024 OLYMPIC GAMES.

SOUNDBITES IN FRENCH AND ENGLISH OF TONY ESTANGUET, PRESIDENT OF THE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, AND ÉTIENNE THOBOIS, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE.

Translation Tony Estanguet, President of the Organizing Committee:

1. “Once again, the water quality of the Seine has been good for several weeks, with extremely good levels, which are monitored twice a day and are very, very good. The river flow is also closely monitored and the responsible authorities are very calm about it. The flow has dropped enormously in the last few days”.

2. “Today we know that there will be no impact on the little rainfall that may have occurred yesterday, so today all the indicators are green for the Seine. Once again, work has been done in a remarkable way. On the second question on the coronavirus, which is also an issue that we follow very closely with the French health authorities. They are obviously very mobilized to follow the evolution of this virus, which is in decline in our country, there are fewer and fewer cases. In any case, there is no recommendation today from the health authorities to reinforce the system, although of course the Paris 24 teams have been doing so for several years, taking advantage of their experience of what may have happened with covid. They have planned to be able to be activated at any time if contingency plans are needed in this area. The recommendation today is to make sure that sanitary plans are respected, so that hands are washed and hygiene is as strict as possible, but there is no recommendation today to reinforce the mask system”.

An important fact is that we already have confirmation from the IOC (International Olympic Committee) that all delegations want to participate in the parade, so there will be at least one athlete per delegation who wants to participate”.



Soundbites translation Étienne Thobois, General Manager Organizing Committee:

1. “We were able to solve the problem at the same time as Crowdstrike, so the impact on Paris 2024 operations was very limited.”