Covid-19: Beijing Olympics to be held without foreign spectators in 2022

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Chinese organizers decided on Wednesday that the events of the Beijing Winter Olympics will be reserved for the Chinese public, foreign spectators being excluded. These decisions are a foretaste of the health package that will be presented in October.

Unlike those in Tokyo, the Beijing Winter Olympics will not be held (for the moment) behind closed doors from February 4 to 20, 2022. But they will be deprived of foreign spectators, the events being reserved for the public. Chinese due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Wednesday, September 29, relaying the decision of the Chinese organizers.

In addition, said the IOC, only fully vaccinated participants will be exempt from quarantine, and will integrate a strict bubble. The others will have to observe 21 days of isolation, except “proof of medical exemption”.

As the epidemic situation evolves – marked both by the spread of Covid-19 variants and by increasingly extensive vaccination coverage – the options selected differ from those in Tokyo: the closed door is currently excluded , and the treatment of athletes will depend on their vaccination status.

A taste of the measures unveiled in October

The Olympic “bubble” – a closed-circuit organization now familiar to the sports world – promises to be more rigorous than in Japan. It will not allow mingling with the population, and provides for a daily Covid test for “all participants in the Games”, as well as “for the workforce” residing in China.

These decisions are a foretaste of the package of measures that will be unveiled in October to prevent the Winter Games from turning into the hotbed of contamination, a threat that had already poisoned the preparation for the Tokyo Olympics this summer.

With AFP