AKIPRESS.COM - The 2020 Olympic Games will be postponed by one year because of coronavirus, says International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound, BBC reports. 

It comes after the chairman of the British Olympic Association said Great Britain would be unlikely to send a team to Tokyo this summer.

Australia and Canada have already said they will not compete in Japan.

"On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided," Pound told USA today.

"The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on 24 July, that much I know."

The International Olympic Committee has given itself four weeks to decide on the future of this summer's Games, but veteran IOC member Pound says a decision will be announced soon.

"It will come in stages," he said.

"We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense."