Winter Olympics: Beijing 2022 organisers say they "face great pressure" because of Covid-19
- Published
Beijing 2022 will be the first Winter Games to be held in China
The organisers of the Winter Olympics in Beijing say they "face great pressure" because of Covid-19.
The Winter Olympics take place in February and the Paralympics in March, with China holding a series of test events from Friday in preparation.
Anyone attending the Winter Olympics and Paralympics who is not fully vaccinated will have to serve a 21-day quarantine on arrival in Beijing.
Others will enter a "closed-loop management system" when they arrive.
"We expect that over 2,000 overseas athletes, team officials, international technical officials, and timing and scoring professionals will come to China to participate in various competitions," said Yao Hui, venue management chief on the Beijing Winter Olympics organising committee.
"We face great pressure in epidemic prevention and control."
Games organisers said that tickets would be sold "exclusively to spectators residing in China's mainland" who meet the coronavirus countermeasures.
Vaccinated athletes will be allowed to move only between Games-related venues for training, competitions and work.
All those involved in the Games within the closed-loop system will be tested daily.
"From when they enter the bubble to when they leave China, we will strictly enforce full-course point-to-point closed-loop management policies," said Huang Chun, head of epidemic prevention and control on the organising committee.
"In the closed loop, all event participants can only move between the competition venues and participate in activities related to their work, competition and training. Other activities are not allowed."
A trial of many of the measures will take place over several weeks in China during a series of domestic test events, international competitions and training for overseas athletes.
They will start at the National Speed Skating Oval and be held at eight other Olympic venues before the end of the year.
Test events in certain sports were scheduled for last winter but were cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
