'It is like heaven or hell': Tokyo doctor at the crossroads of a Covid crisis and a quiet Olympics

The Games are a world apart from the strain of his regular job running the intensive care unit at Tokyo's Nippon Medical School Hospital, fighting a fifth wave of the pandemic that is pushing the city's medical care system to the brink

Nippon Medical School Hospital's ICU doctor Shoji Yokobori watches weightlifting at a medical station of Tokyo International Forum, the weightlifting venue of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, where he works as an emergency medicine officer Picture: REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

After more than a year at the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic, Japanese emergency doctor Shoji Yokobori finds himself at the unlikely calm of the Olympics, overseeing a venue with strict protocols, no spectators and low infection risks.

A volunteer medical officer at the Tokyo Olympics weightlifting venue, Yokobori and a team of around a dozen other medical staff are yet to see a major injury, let alone a coronavirus outbreak.