Tokyo 2020 bosses warned on Tuesday for the first time that the Olympics could be delayed until later in the year as the effect of the coronavirus widens.

Some 90,000 people have been infected worldwide with more than 3,000 having died as a result, and the World Health Organisation singled out Japan as one of the areas of “greatest concern” over containing the virus.

On Tuesday Japan’s Olympic minister Seiko Hashimoto told lawmakers in the Japanese parliament: “The contract calls for the Games to be held within 2020. That could be interpreted as allowing a postponement.”

The Games are scheduled to get under way at the end of July and Hashimoto said organisers were still “doing all we can to ensure that the Games go ahead as planned”.

The International Olympic Committee, meanwhile, were sticking to their stance that the Games would begin as planned.

Speaking prior to an IOC executive board meeting in Lausanne, president Thomas Bach said: “The preparations for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 are continuing with a view to having a successful Olympic Games this summer in Tokyo and to reassure the athletes and to encourage them to go ahead full steam ahead with regard to their training and preparations for what we expect to be a very successful Games.”

The coronavirus is high on the agenda of the two-day meeting in Switzerland with IOC member Anita de Frantz refusing to speculate at the meeting either whether the Games could take place behind closed doors or else be postponed or cancelled.

She told Sky News: “I am not a scientist nor do I set the agenda but it affects sports so it will be something we talk about a lot during the time we’re here of course. But I will not speculate at all on these great Games, which will be held in Tokyo in five-and-a-half months.”

In Pictures | Team GB gold medal hopes for Tokyo 2020 7 show all In Pictures | Team GB gold medal hopes for Tokyo 2020 1/7 Adam Peaty AFP/Getty Images 2/7 Dina Asher-Smith PA 3/7 Katarina Johnson-Thompson Reuters 4/7 Laura Kenny PA 5/7 Max Whitlock Getty Images 6/7 Laura Muir Getty Images 7/7 Lizzie Deignan Getty Images 1/7 Adam Peaty AFP/Getty Images 2/7 Dina Asher-Smith PA 3/7 Katarina Johnson-Thompson Reuters 4/7 Laura Kenny PA 5/7 Max Whitlock Getty Images 6/7 Laura Muir Getty Images 7/7 Lizzie Deignan Getty Images

This morning, a wheelchair test rugby event ahead of the Paralympic Games – scheduled for March 12-15 – was called off by the Japan Para Sports Association but the body said plans were still in place to “carry out the wheelchair rugby test event in some form in April after ensuring a safe and secure environment”.

In the UK, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC that the Government was not pushing for largescale gatherings to be cancelled until advised otherwise by Public Health England.

But he warned there could be tighter restrictions in future because of the “significant risk” posed by the coronavirus. He said: “There may be things that we have to do down the line that we may not want to but we will need the powers to do that, hence proposing emergency legislation.”

London Marathon bosses said they were still planning to celebrate 40 years of the event as planned on April 26 but that they would continue to remain in constant dialogue with the relevant authorities.

Event director Hugh Brasher said: “We are monitoring closely the developments relating to the spread of coronavirus and noting the updates and advice given by the UK Government, the World Health Organisation and other UK public bodies.”

More pressingly, the Cheltenham Festival, which begins next week and is expected to see in excess of a quarter of a million people in attendance over the four days or racing, is still scheduled to go ahead.