Japanese olympics minister Seiko Hashimoto said the planned international sporting festival in Tokyo this summer will go ahead despite the threat of coronavirus.

Earlier a member of the organising committee for the event Haruyuki Takahashi had suggested that while a cancellation was unlikely, the games could be delayed if unable to be held as planned due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“With the star athletes in the middle of preparations for this event which happens only once every four years, a cancellation or delay to the Tokyo games is inconceivable,” Hashimoto said in a parliamentary committee according to Bloomberg . “A delay is not under consideration.”

Read more: Japan may postpone Tokyo Olympics as coronavirus cases mount

Hashimoto did acknowledge that a final decision on whether the games goes ahead lies with the International Olympic Committee.

Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori said today his team was not considering changing plans for the games and that the board member who had suggested a delay because of the coronavirus had apologised.

Read more: Exclusive: Bailey calls for London to host Olympics if coronavirus forces Tokyo move

“It is our basic stance that we press ahead with preparation for a safe and secure Olympics,” Mori told reporters. “Therefore we are not at all thinking about changing courses or plans.”

Coronavirus has already disrupted top level sport, with games in Italy cancelled or held behind closed doors because of the outbreak, and gears that the country’s Serie A league could be suspended amid a nation-wide lockdown.

Manchester City’s clash against Arsenal tonight was cancelled after several Arsenal players went into quarantine. They had met Olympiakos-owner Evangelos Marinakis when the two clubs played in London on 27 February.

