With Covid Outbreak Worsens, Fijian athletes board a plane for the Olympics

As Fiji battles one of the world’s fastest-growing coronavirus diseases, the Pacific Olympic team left for Tokyo on a cargo plane on Thursday.

Their other passengers? Shipment of frozen fish.

The outbreak of the coronavirus had thwarted plans to get athletes to Japan on regular planes after almost all passengers from the country were suspended until the end of July. Only a certain number of repatriation and cargo flights are allowed to depart.

The Delta variant of the virus has fallen to the ground, with an average of 57 new daily cases per 100,000 people in the last two weeks, according to the New York Times database. Just over 6 percent of the population is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

So organizing the trips was a logistical challenge, Lorraine Mar, Director General of the Fiji Sports and National Olympic Committee, said Associated Press. The solution: a cargo plane that carries mostly frozen seafood and has just enough passenger space for athletes and other officials.

Its stark contrast to other more blatant modes of transport in the Olympics: U.S. basketball players Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton can travel to Tokyo on a private machine due to schedule conflicts, while the British Olympic team left London Heathrow Airport on Tuesday wearing matching tracksuits in the colors of their teams.

Around midnight local time, about 50 athletes and officials from Fiji, including the country’s men and women in seven rugby teams, departed on a flight from the main international airport, Nadi, to Tokyo before the Summer Games.

Prior to boarding, team members spent 96 hours in solitary confinement and performed tests 72 hours prior to departure in accordance with instructions set by Tokyo officials. One official on the Fiji Olympic team who tested positive for Covid-19 was removed from the event.

National Olympic Committee of the countries prior to the departure of the teams posted a video showing disguised well-wishers waving the azure flag of Fiji waving goodbye.

The country competes in six sports, including archery, judo and table tennis. In 2016, 60 years after the country’s first competition at the Olympics, Fiji won its first medal when the men’s rugby team won the Rio de Janeiro inaugural Olympic rugby-seven tournament.