Tokyo’s State of Emergency and what it means for the Olympics, explained

Things are still really bad

Yes, the COVID-19 vaccine is now widely available in the United States, but that doesn’t mean the pandemic is over. It’s not even close yet.

And things are pretty bad in a lot of places across the globe. And Japan is one of those places.

The country is currently struggling with a COVID-19 spike with infections spreading at an alarming rate. Because of the spike, Tokyo has declared yet another state of emergency from July 12 to August 22, per the Associated Press.

Obviously, this is a big deal for the summer Olympic games that start in Tokyo in just a couple of weeks. The games are going to look drastically different because of it.

Here’s everything you need to know.