Coronavirus outbreak update: Jan. 24, 2021

As of 10 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 24

• A year after calling for a Tokyo Olympics delay, women's pole vault champion Katerina Stefanidi of Greece believes the games should be held this summer -- even without fans.
• Tokyo logged 986 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, down from 1,070 the previous day and dropping below the 1,000 mark for the first time in 12 days, the metropolitan government said.
  
  
• Rui Hachimura and five other players will remain sidelined due to coronavirus safety protocols when the Washington Wizards resume their season following a six-game postponement, the team said Saturday.

As of 11 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 23

• Hong Kong on Saturday ordered a populated area to be locked down, the first time such a measure has been taken in the pandemic-hit territory, following a surge in coronavirus cases in recent days.
  
  
• Eighty percent, or 38, of Japan's 47 prefectural capitals have raised concerns about whether they have enough doctors and nurses to vaccinate residents against the novel coronavirus as the nation prepares to start vaccinating the population in late February, according to a Kyodo News survey released Saturday.
  
  
• The death toll from the novel coronavirus in Japan surpassed 5,000 on Saturday as the country struggles to curb a third wave of infections, health authorities said.
  
  
• A four-day workweek has increasingly been embraced by businesses inside and outside Japan during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
  
  
• A private high school in northeastern Japan canceled its entrance exams a day before they were due to be held as "a preventive measure" as it was awaiting the results of coronavirus tests taken by several of its students, which later turned out to be negative, the school said Saturday.
  
  
• International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, who previously said spectator numbers could be reduced to a "reasonable" level at the Tokyo Games, on Friday touched on the possibility of not having spectators at all.
  
  
• Saturday marked one year since a drastic lockdown was imposed on Wuhan, the original epicenter of the novel coronavirus, with the number of new symptomatic patients almost leveling off in the central Chinese city.
  
  
• The World Health Organization said Friday it has signed a purchase agreement for up to 40 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. as part of its initiative to provide global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
  
  
• The Tokyo Olympic organizers are considering staging this year's Olympic torch relay away from public roads if a state of emergency is in effect where it is being run, a source with knowledge of the matter said Friday.

Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - January 16~22