Tokyo 2020 Games handover ceremony stripped down to bare bones

FILE PHOTO: A campaign banner for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games of Coca-Cola, a Worldwide Olympic Partners, is displayed at New Chitose Airport in Chitose, Hokkaido, northern Japan February 27, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato

ATHENS (Reuters) - The Tokyo 2020 Olympics flame handover ceremony in Athens this week will be a scaled-down event with only a few Tokyo Games officials and torch bearers inside the stadium to protect everyone from the coronavirus, the Hellenic Olympic Committee said on Monday.

The handover ceremony usually attracts thousand of spectators, officials and ceremony participants in the central Athens' Panathenaic Stadium, site of the first modern Olympics in 1896.