Senior International Olympic Committee member Richard Pound said earlier in the week that the Olympics may be held largely without fans, making it a mostly television event.

The Australian and U.S. Olympic Committees said they were preparing for the Games as planned.

Holding the Tokyo Games without spectators would deal a blow to the organizing committee, which expects to make revenue of 90 billion yen ($867 million) from ticket sales.

"The Tokyo Games are definitely on". The flames will be lit on the 23rd of July 2021.

The bloc had agreed to distribute vaccines at an equal pace and on a pro rata basis, but speaking to a local radio on Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban blamed Brussels for the slow distribution and urged the European Medicines Agency to approve other vaccines, such as the Oxford/AstraZeneca candidate.

Mr Carroll described the news surrounding the games being cancelled as an "unfounded rumour".

A 53-page interim report released in December outlines measures including a ban on supporters cheering, regular testing for athletes and limited stays at the Olympic village. "The athletes will stay in the village, they will go to the training venues, they will go to competition venues and then they will come back to the village". Event director Hugh Brasher said: 'We are incredibly positive that we will be able to have 50,000 people running the London Marathon in person in 2021'.

Tokyo 2020's CEO Toshiro Muto told AFP this week that organisers were "unwavering" in their commitment to holding the Games this summer and that cancellation had not been discussed. "Sadly ceremonies and cultural aspects of the games will be reduced, and decisions on spectators are still to be made".

Paris has already been awarded the Olympics in 2024, a year before the western Japan prefecture hosts the World Exposition.

The Japanese government is determined that the Tokyo Olympics will go ahead, organizers said Friday, following an unconfirmed report that cancellation of the Games might be imminent.

There has been a surge in COVID-19 cases in Japan recently, forcing the country to close its borders to foreigners and declare a state of emergency in Tokyo and other major cities.

"No one wants to be the first to say so but the consensus is that it's too hard", the source told The Times. "But I think there's a very, very good chance that they can, and that they will". "There is an absolute, cast-iron determination", Coe told Reuters, saying that the arrival of vaccines and ability of athletes to train meant the situation was far better than when the Games were postponed a year ago.

There has been widespread pushback over the games being held this year, with the event that is expected to draw 15,000 athletes and staff presenting insurmountable safety risks for organizers.