The global spread of the coronavirus has forced the Tokyo Olympics to be postponed until next summer at the latest, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Tuesday.

Abe said that he and the International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach came to an agreement to postpone the Games. The latest the event can take place is the summer of 2021.

"In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community," the IOC and Abe said in a joint statement.

"The leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times and that the Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present. Therefore, it was agreed that the Olympic flame will stay in Japan. It was also agreed that the Games will keep the name Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020."

In this March 3, 2020, photo, a tourist wearing a protective mask takes a photo with the Olympic rings in the background, at Tokyo's Odaiba district in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
In this March 3, 2020, photo, a tourist wearing a protective mask takes a photo with the Olympic rings in the background, at Tokyo's Odaiba district in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
The organization wouldn’t confirm or deny Monday whether the Games were going to be postponed after veteran IOC member Dick Pound told USA Today the event was on hold.

“On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided," Pound told the news outlet. "The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.”

Pound also told USA Today the ramifications of postponing the Games would be “immense.”