than we expectedbut when you look that hard for infections especially in a group of people who have recently flown in from all over the globe and have had varying levels of access to vaccines youre all but destined to find somethe bottom line is theres still just a lot of sarscov2 around the world thats spreading dr rasmussen said referring to the virus that causes covid19imagecreditchang w leethe new york timesso far 75 people with olympic credentials have tested positive for the coronavirus including six athletes according to toyko 2020s public database that number does not include those who tested positive before their departure to japan little information has been released about the severity of most of these cases though public reports suggest that the athletes are generally experiencing mild or no symptomsit is also unclear how many of these athletes have been fully vaccinated the ioc said that it expected 85 percent of athletes coaches and team staff staying in the olympic village to be vaccinatedthe vaccines provide strong protection against severe disease but they are not an impenetrable shield there have been concerns in particular about the effectiveness of chinas sinopharm and sinovac vaccines which some olympic participants may have receivedsome breakthrough infections are inevitable even with the best vaccines and these infections which tend to be mild and rare are more likely to be caught and reported when they crop up in olympiansyoure hearing about cases particularly among famous people and athletes because theyre well known and theyre being tested frequently dr binney said its not just olympians last week six yankees players tested positive for the virus at least three of whom were fully vaccinated it was the second breakthrough cluster on the yankees six fully vaccinated state lawmakers from texas also tested positive for the virus after racing to washington last week in an effort to stop the passage of a restrictive state voting rights billas expected most of these cases were apparently mild or even entirely asymptomatic but pcr tests can detect even minute traces of the virusyoure going to pick up on these lowgrade infections and the players are going to be quarantined and out of competition said john moore a virologist at weill cornell medicine in new york and theyre probably not going to be ill because theyre young healthy athletesaccording to the olympic playbooks athletes with positive pcr tests are to be isolated at designated facilities though the location and length of isolation vary depending on the severity of the case japans health authorities require a 10day quarantine at facilities outside the olympic village and multiple negative pcr tests before discharge an ioc official said in an emailsome athletes who have been flagged as close contacts of positive cases have also been moved into isolation or quarantine although they may be allowed to continue training or competing on a casebycase basisthose who are cleared to compete may have to adhere to enhanced countermeasures the ioc says such as eating meals