托伊科-吉尔·拜登以第一夫人的身份开始了她的第一次个人国际之旅，率领一个美国代表团参加了在东京举行的奥运会，那里的冠状病毒正在激增，新冠肺炎的感染人数已经攀升到六个月来的最高水平。
她于周四抵达东京，行程包括与首相菅义伟及其夫人真理子·菅义伟在赤坂宫共进晚餐。她将于周五返回皇宫，由真理子·菅义伟主持。
第一夫人在日本首都有一个长达48小时的日程安排。
在皇宫会见德仁天皇之前，她将与美国队成员举行一次虚拟聚会。她将在晚上出席奥运会开幕式，预计将率领一个由两人组成的精简代表团，成员还包括雷蒙德·格林(Raymond Greene)，他在美国驻东京大使馆没有大使的情况下负责监督事务。
周六，第一夫人将把美国代表团团长官邸的一个房间献给前美国参议员丹尼尔·伊诺伊和他的妻子艾琳·平野·伊诺伊。这位参议员于2012年去世，他的妻子于去年去世。
她将在美国大使馆为工作人员和他们的家人举办一场美国对墨西哥垒球观看派对，并在离开东京前为参加几个项目比赛的美国运动员加油。
白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基说，总统乔·拜登和第一夫人都认为参加奥运会的代表团由“最高级别”领导是很重要的吉尔·拜登期待着帮助支持美国运动员的旅程，他们将在一些最艰苦的条件下参加奥运会。
在前往东京的途中，第一夫人在阿拉斯加停留，她赞扬了在这个崎岖偏远的州为居民接种疫苗的努力，但指出这项工作还没有完成。像美国其他地区一样，阿拉斯加的病例数也在上升健康官员们对疫苗接种率持平表示担忧。
吉尔·拜登在安克雷奇参观阿拉斯加土著部落健康联盟时说:“即使我们庆祝我们取得的进步，我们也知道这最后一次推动确实是最艰难的一次。她说，让更多的人接种疫苗将意味着“一个人接一个人”地处理这个病例。
该州首席医疗官安妮·津克博士和健康联盟的领导人瓦莱丽·戴维森也加入了第一夫人的行列。部落卫生系统被认为帮助阿拉斯加在疫苗推广方面有了一个良好的开端，部落卫生组织分享了这一点疫苗并且能够决定如何最好地分配他们的分配。
戴维森说，通过部落卫生系统以及州和联邦政府的合作，“我们能够确保我们的一些最后的语言持有者和最后的文化持有者能够成为第一批接种疫苗的人，无论他们的年龄如何。”
在一个许多社区没有连接到主干道系统的州，在某些情况下，疫苗是通过小型飞机、船只和雪橇犬等方式运送的。吉尔·拜登被告知，疫苗甚至被运送到一艘8英尺(2.4米)高的捕鲸船上。
根据州卫生部门的数据，大约52%的阿拉斯加12岁或以上的居民已经完全接种了疫苗。
津克是阿拉斯加新冠肺炎回应的公众人物之一，他称赞吉尔·拜登的访问。“当阿拉斯加真的出现在地图上时，我们会很兴奋。当人们来参观我们美丽的大州时，我们会更加兴奋。
戴维森是尤比克人，他给拜登起了一个名字Taurluq，吉尔·拜登说这是戴维森祖母的名字。吉尔·拜登说:“我希望我能努力不辜负你祖母曾经是的那个女人。
周三，在安克雷奇的埃尔曼多夫-理查森联合基地，迎接第一夫人的是该基地的官员以及阿拉斯加渔民之家的工作人员和客人，在那里，当亲人住院时，军人和退伍军人家庭可以免费住宿。
阿拉斯加渔民之家的经理特蕾莎·内德罗称与吉尔·拜登会面的机会“非同寻常”
“这是一生难得的机会，”她说。
在吉尔·拜登从东京回来的路上，她将在返回华盛顿之前参观檀香山的一家疫苗接种诊所。
东京的新冠肺炎感染人数周三飙升至六个月来的最高水平，在奥运会开幕前两天新增了1832例病例。
奥运会主办城市现在处于第四次紧急状态，持续到8月22日，跨越周五开幕至8月8日结束的奥运会期间。东京地区的所有场馆都禁止球迷入场，少数外围场地的观众数量有限。
有人说，菅义伟政府将奥林匹克运动置于公共健康之上，这一说法受到了批评，奥运会的筹备过程也没有什么大张旗鼓，因为冠状病毒大流行，奥运会从去年开始推迟。
故宫上月表示，德仁天皇“极度担心”奥运会可能会加速冠状病毒的传播。
吉尔·拜登全面接种疫苗。白宫新闻秘书普萨基(Psaki)表示，美国代表团在访问期间将遵循“非常严格”的健康和安全协议，包括限制他们与公众的接触，并尽可能保持较小的足迹。
乔·拜登总统没有参加奥运会。
Jill Biden in Tokyo for Olympic Games, meets prime minister
TOYKO -- Jill Biden embarked on her first solo international trip as first lady, leading a U.S. delegation to the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where the coronavirus is surging and COVID-19 infections have climbed to a six-month high.
She arrived in Tokyo on Thursday, and her schedule includes dinner with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and his wife, Mariko Suga, at Akasaka Palace. She is to return to the palace Friday and be hosted by Mariko Suga.
The first lady has a robust agenda for roughly 48 hours on the ground in Japan’s capital.
She will hold a virtual get-together with members of Team USA before meeting Emperor Naruhito at the Imperial Palace. She attends the opening ceremony for the Games in the evening and is expected to lead a slimmed-down delegation of two that also includes Raymond Greene, who is overseeing affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo in the absence of an ambassador.
On Saturday, the first lady will dedicate a room in the residence of the U.S. chief of mission to former U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and his wife, Irene Hirano Inouye. The senator died in 2012, and his wife died last year.
She will host a U.S.-vs.-Mexico softball watch party at the U.S. Embassy for staff and their families, and cheer U.S. athletes competing in several events before leaving Tokyo.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that PresidentJoe Bidenand the first lady both felt it was important that the delegation to the Olympic Games be led “at the highest level,” and thatJill Bidenlooked forward to the journey to help support U.S. athletes, who will be competing in some of the starkest conditions for an Olympic Games.
On her way to Tokyo, the first lady stopped in Alaska, where she praised efforts to vaccinate residents in the rugged, remote state but noted the work is not done. Alaska, like other parts of the country, is seeing case counts rise, andhealthofficials have expressed concern with flattening vaccination rates.
“Even as we celebrate the progress we've made, we know that this last push is really the hardest of all,” Jill Biden said while visiting the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium in Anchorage. Getting more people vaccinated will mean making the case “person by person," she said.
The first lady was joined by the state's chief medical officer, Dr. Anne Zink, and the health consortium's leader, Valerie Davidson. The tribal health system has been credited with helping Alaska get off to a strong start with its vaccine rollout, with tribal health organizations sharingvaccineswith the broader community and being able to decide how best to distribute their allocations.
Davidson said that with cooperation among the tribal health system and state and federal governments, “we were able to ensure that some of our last language bearers and our last culture bearers were able to be among the first people vaccinated, regardless of their age.”
In a state where many communities are not connected to a main road system, vaccine was delivered in some cases by means including small planes, boats and sled dogs. The vaccine was even transported out to a whaling boat in 8-foot (2.4-meter) seas, Jill Biden was told.
About 52% of Alaska residents 12 or older are fully vaccinated, according to the state health department.
Zink, who has been one of the public faces of Alaska's COVID-19 response, lauded Jill Biden's visit. “We get excited when Alaska's actually on a map. We're even more excited when people come and visit our big and beautiful and absolutely wonderous state," she said.
Davidson, who is Yup'ik, gave Biden the name Taurluq, which Jill Biden said was the name of Davidson's grandmother. “I hope I can try and live up to the woman your grandmother was,” Jill Biden said.
Greeting the first lady on Wednesday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage were officials from the base and staff and guests at the Alaska Fisher House, where military and veteran families can stay free of charge when a loved one is hospitalized.
Theresa Nedrow, manager of the Alaska Fisher House, called the chance to meet with Jill Biden “remarkable.”
“It was an opportunity of a lifetime,” she said.
On Jill Biden's way back from Tokyo, she is set to tour a Honolulu vaccination clinic before returning to Washington.
Tokyo’s COVID-19 infections surged to a six-month high Wednesday with 1,832 new cases logged just two days before the Games open.
The Olympic host city is now under its fourth state of emergency, which runs through Aug. 22, spanning the duration of the Olympic Games that open Friday and end Aug. 8. Fans are banned from all venues in the Tokyo area, with limited audiences at a few outlying sites.
Suga's government has been criticized for what some say is prioritizing Olympic sport over public health, and there has been little fanfare in the run-up to the Games, which were postponed from last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Imperial Palace said last month that Naruhito is “extremely worried” that the Games could accelerate the spread of the coronavirus.
Jill Biden is fully vaccinated. Psaki, the White House press secretary, said the U.S. delegation will follow “very strict” health and safety protocols during the trip, including limiting their engagement with the public and keeping as small a footprint as possible.
President Joe Biden is not attending the Games.
