'Anti-sex' to anti-waste: Olympics beds to be reused for Covid-19 patients in Osaka

The infamous "anti-sex" cardboard beds Olympic athletes slept on in the Games village will find a new home.

Osaka governor Hirofumi Yoshimura told media on Saturday (Sept11) that about 800 "high quality beds" built for Olympians will be reused at a temporary facility in the Japanese prefecture for Covid-19 patients.

According to media reports in Japan, the beds were designed to support people up to 200 kilograms in weight.

A Japanese company, Airweave, created the beds with cardboard material so as to be able to recycle them in the future.

 

@tillykearns

Reply to @lifeofriley2 Beds in the Olympic village, YES they are made from cardboard ?

♬ Dreams (2004 Remaster) - Fleetwood Mac

 

Prior to the Olympics, rumours were swirling on social media that these beds were flimsy, designed to prevent athletes hooking up amid pandemic restrictions and therefore "anti-sex" in nature.

Similar to previous Games, athletes were provided with free condoms at the Olympics Village. Due to the fear of Covid-19 spreading, they were told not to use the condoms but to bring it home as souvenirs instead.

However, that was soon quelled when athletes started to get cozy in the Olympic Village and began conducting their own 'tests' and putting them up online.

[embed]https://twitter.com/shachar_baron/status/1420060775918493697[/embed]

With the Summer Games and Paralympic Games completed in August and last week respectively, Airweave supplied about 26,000 beds and will donate the frames with the goal of creating a more sustainable society as reported in Vice. 

The publication also reported that more than 65 percent of Osaka's hospital beds are occupied for both for serious and non-life threatening cases of Covid-19.

The Japan Times reported that Japan has 116,295 active Covid-19 cases – 1,160 were new cases from the Osaka prefecture – as of Sept 15 and more than 50 per cent of Japan's population has received two shots of the vaccine. 

ALSO READ: Tokyo weighs use of Olympic venues as temporary medical facilities amid soaring Covid-19 cases

amierul@asiaone.com