Proposals to protect professional athletes and spectators from being infected with the new coronaviurs were presented Thursday at a joint committee meeting set up by the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization (NPB) and the J.League to discuss countermeasures against the spreading virus.
At the third committee meeting in Tokyo, the expert panel -- led by Mitsuo Kaku, a specially appointed professor at Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University -- compiled proposals on measures to prevent the spread of the virus among players and team staffers as well as the kind of precautions and preparations that need to be taken when organizing a sporting event with spectators.
In the proposals, the panel said it might need a few more weeks before official games can take place.
In the meantime, the panel recommended expediting efforts to introduce a system under which spectators have their temperatures taken and their hands disinfected when entering sports venues.
The panel calls on spectators to alter some of their customary cheering practices, some of which are believed to pose a high risk of infection. That list includes releasing balloons into the air, playing wind instruments and jumping up and down in groups.
Situations that require experts on countermeasures against infectious diseases to have to compile proposals focusing on sports are rare.
"The proposals can be applied to other sports," Kaku said at a press conference.
In response to the proposals, the NPB's 12 teams held a meeting of with team representatives the same day and decided to discuss a number of possible dates for the opening of the regular season, eyeing a start on or after April 10.
Payment for tickets to games that were scheduled between March 20 and April 9 will be refunded.
The J.League plans to decide by March 25 whether to resume its schedule on April 3, relying on expert opinion and in accordance with the extent of the spread of the infection.
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