The president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organising committee has rebuffed speculation that the Games might be cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Tokyo 2020 president Yoshiro Mori has said that cancelling the Games is not an option and that he is confident they will go ahead as scheduled, despite the number of coronavirus cases in Japan now exceeding 1,000.
"I am totally not considering this," Mori told reporters at a briefing when asked about a possible cancellation.
When asked as to when organisers could decide on changes to the Olympics, Mori added, "I'm not God, so I don't know."
But Mori, who repeated several times that the only plan right now was to hold the Games as scheduled, also emphasised that the organisers were listening to various opinions and would be flexible.
"The situation changes every day. It changes depending on the place. That's why we need to respond in a flexible manner," he added.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board are holding talks in Lausanne with Tokyo 2020 officials.
Mori also said he was happy to hear IOC president Thomas Bach's comments on Tuesday that the Tokyo Olympics would be held on schedule.
Meanwhile, the Games organising committee said on Wednesday it had stepped up its measures to protect the health of runners and spectators for the torch relay as the coronavirus spreads nationwide.
The measures will include limiting the number of visitors to venues and monitoring the health of runners, the committee said in a statement.
Details of specific relay events will be reviewed based on the infection status of each prefecture, the committee said.
Coronavirus has killed more than 3,000 people and infected more than 89,000 globally after it originated in China late last year.
A number of Olympic qualifying events have been affected by the outbreak. A third test event for Tokyo 2020 was cancelled on Wednesday with the Asian Sevens Invitational -- scheduled for April 25-26 -- no longer set to take place due to the outbreak.
A range of sporting events across the world have been affected by the coronavirus, including Italian football's Serie A and Formula One's Chinese Grand Prix.
Information from Reuters contributed to this report.