One of the world’s greatest horse shows, held at the Royal Dublin Society showgrounds, will not be staged in Ireland during mid-July as scheduled. The Dublin Horse Show is always a landmark of the season and plays to a packed house, with the Nations Cup for the Aga Khan trophy as the highlight.
Michael Duffy, CEO of the RDS, explained, “We believe it is the most responsible decision we can make in the best interests of public health and safety.”
At the same time, the Luhmuhlen, Germany, 5-star three-day event, set for June 18-21, is reviewing its options.Plans call for reopening of some businesses in Germany in the next few weeks, but major events on the order of concerts will be banned until the end of August.
Meanwhile, Kentaro Iwata, a professor of infectious diseases at Kobe University, said he is “very pessimistic” about the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games taking place next year. Japan Times reported he does not believe the coronavirus pandemic will be under control by next year.
“Holding the Olympics needs two conditions: one, controlling COVID-19 in Japan and (two) controlling COVID-19 everywhere – because you have to invite the athletes and the audience from all over the world,” he said.
“Japan might be able to control this disease by next summer, I wish we could, but I don’t think that would happen everywhere on Earth, so in this regard I’m very pessimistic about holding the Olympics Games next summer,” he said.