Sri Lanka, June 27 -- The Japanese government plans to ask Tokyo Olympic-bound Indian athletes to have daily virus tests for seven days before departure for the Games. India amongst five other countries is been hit hard by the highly infectious Delta variant of COVID-19.

Currently, all overseas athletes are being asked to have coronavirus tests twice during the four-day period before their departure for the Tokyo Olympics, which are set to start on July 23 after a year's delay due to the pandemic.

The Japanese government aims to put the new rule, which will be applied to athletes from India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, into effect on July 1, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported, without citing sources.

Olympics Mi...