TOKYO • Next year's Paralympics need to be able to guarantee zero coronavirus cases, the head of the global association has said, adding that the Games cannot go ahead if protection measures do not improve.

The warning from International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president Andrew Parsons comes as Tokyo marked one year to the postponed Games yesterday.

Unlike their able-bodied counterparts, the Brazilian admitted some para-athletes were particularly vulnerable to Covid-19, and that at current risk levels, the Paralympics were not feasible.

"If the situation was like it is today... if we were going to start tomorrow, we could not go ahead," he told Agence France-Presse in an interview. "We need to learn more, prepare better."

After a recent surge in coronavirus cases, Tokyo is skipping the sort of public events held last year to mark 12 months before the original start date.

The unprecedented decision to delay the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics by a year has created a logistical nightmare for organisers, and concerns remain over whether they can safely take place at all.

Parsons believes current social distancing measures and standards for testing and tracing would not be enough to protect some 4,350 para-athletes plus staff, fans, volunteers and the media.

"We are not working with acceptable levels of risk. This is the bottom line, this is where we draw the line in the sand," he said. "How we can ensure that we will not have one single case? One single case in the village can really disrupt the Games."

Exactly what measures will be necessary, and possible, remains to be seen. Tokyo 2020 organisers, together with Olympic and Paralympic officials, are expected to begin discussions next month on everything from quarantine measures to barring fans.

Acknowledging the complexity and scale of the Games, Parsons said: "This is why I'm saying, if we don't discover better ways of doing it, social distancing, monitoring, testing, it will be very difficult.

"What we need to have different from what the Olympic athletes have is not the protection to prevent them from being contaminated, it's what happens if they get contaminated, because it can be really severe, really fast.

"The standard we have to take is, it doesn't matter if you have a disability or not, you don't get the virus, full stop."

A poll of Japanese Paralympic athletes published on Sunday by the Kyodo News Agency found more than 70 per cent are worried about training because of Covid-19.

On the likelihood of a scaled-down Games, Parsons added the IPC was on alert to ensure that the cost-cutting measures did not involve lower standards of accessibility, which he called "non-negotiable".

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE