TOKYO • The Tokyo Olympics organisers said yesterday they will make a call next week on how they plan to hold the ceremonial torch relay amid growing worries the coronavirus could scale back or even cancel scheduled events at the Games.

The chief executive of the committee, Toshiro Muto, has said it would consider cutting back the relay to limit the spread of the virus but no details have yet been made public.

"As for the torch relay, as CEO Muto said, we want to announce to you the basic policy, the big policy, next week," organising committee spokesman Masa Takaya said at a technical briefing on the relay.

He reiterated the organisers' policy of carefully considering whether it was necessary to hold every event related to Tokyo 2020 separately.

The torch will be lit in Olympia, home of the ancient Greek Games, on March 12 before a seven-day relay in Greece.

Japan's leg of the relay will formally begin in Fukushima, the site of a nuclear disaster caused by an earthquake in 2011, on March 26 and will then proceed to all of Japan's 47 prefectures ahead of the opening ceremony on July 24.

Public broadcaster NHK has said the organising committee is considering scaling back the ceremony in Fukushima from about 3,000 attendees to under 1,000.

The relay is due to pass many of Japan's famous landmarks over a 121-day journey, including Mount Fuji, Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park and Kumamoto Castle.

The host nation has moved to quell fears that the Games might be called off if the virus forced any change in the schedule.

REUTERS