Olympic torch relay in marathon venue Hokkaido to be taken off roads

The Tokyo Olympic torch relay is likely to be taken off public roads in Hokkaido, whose biggest city Sapporo is the venue for the marathon and race walking events, because of a spike in coronavirus infections, a local official said Wednesday.The nationwide relay's segment in Hokkaido is scheduled for June 13 to 14. Japan's northernmost main island has been under a state of emergency since mid-May after repeatedly seeing record daily numbers of COVID-19 infections.Given that the emergency is set to be extended beyond its end date of May 31 as the infection situation has not significantly imp…READ FULL ARTICLE