The Olympic Refugee Team has arrived in Tokyo to take part in the games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said.

The arrival of the team ended fears they may not take part after a team official tested positive to COVOD-19 at a training camp in Qatar.

The unidentified official who tested positive was put into isolation by Qatari authorities. The other athletes and officials have tested negative.

The 26 of the total 29 refugee athletes that form the team had been in a training camp in Qatar and had to delay their departure for Tokyo earlier this week following the positive case.

“Twenty-six athletes, 16 coaches and ten officials have travelled to Japan,” the IOC said.

The team, which will compete under the Olympic flag and includes people from countries including Syria, South Sudan, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Iran, is almost three times as big as the inaugural team at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics.

The athletes, who will march into the stadium during the opening ceremony in second place behind ancient Games founders Greece and will compete in 12 sports, were selected from a pool of 56.

The IOC unveiled its first refugee team at the 2016 Rio Games to raise awareness of the issue as hundreds of thousands of people were pouring into Europe from the Middle East and elsewhere escaping conflict and poverty.

The refugee team was created by the IOC allow athletes to keep competing even if they have been forced to leave their home country.

It had 10 athletes at the Rio de Janeiro Games and is set to include 29 athletes this time in Tokyo.

Tokyo reported its highest number of new COVID-19 cases in almost six months on Wednesday.