Covid-19 cases related to the Olympics rose by 19 on Friday out of which three were athletes participating in the Games, organisers said.

The Tokyo Olympic organisers, in their daily COVID-19 update, announced on Friday that three athletes, 10 Games-concerned personnel, three journalists and three contractors associated with the event have been found positive.

The total number of coronavirus cases among people linked to the Olympic Games has now gone up to 106 among whom 11 are athletes.

Czech Olympic officials are looking into a cluster of coronavirus cases that are linked to a charter flight that brought a group of athletes and staff to Japan. The country's contingent has six coronavirus cases in total.

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A doctor and a coach who were on the flight were reportedly among the first to test positive. Four athletes had also tested positive for the coronavirus.

The charter flight has made news headlines in the Czech Republic amidst reports that many passengers had taken off their masks immediately after the plane took off.

"Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has described the situation as a scandal and unfair to the athletes," according to Radio Prague International.

Much of the controversy is centred around a doctor on board the flight, Vlastimil Voráček, who was reportedly not vaccinated, according to some media reports.

Meanwhile, Tokyo hit another six-month in its daily count of Covid-19 cases with 1,979 fresh infections being reported on Thursday. This is the highest since 2,044 new cases were recorded on Jan. 15.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and the International Olympic Committee have been determined to hold the Olympics despite mounting criticism in the country due to the pandemic.  Tokyo was placed under a state of emergency on July 12, but daily cases have risen sharply.

Spectators have been banned from all Olympic venues in the Tokyo area, with limited audiences allowed at a few outlying events.