Leaders from around 15 countries are expected to attend Friday’s opening ceremony of the COVID-hit Tokyo Olympics.

Reports in Japan have suggested that those attending the ceremony in person could be as low as 1,000 due to the pandemic. The decision to limit the number of attendees during the opening ceremony at the National Stadium here was taken in view of the organisers’ efforts to control the raging COVID-19 pandemic, Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japanese government Katsunobu Kato was quoted as saying by ‘Kyodo news agency.