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Summary
- 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics runs from Feb 4 to 20
- China relaxes COVID-19 rules to make it easier for athletes
- Quarantine dropped from 14 days to 7 days
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will commence from Feb 4 and end on Feb 20. So far more than 3,000 athletes have already made their way to the winter village and 106 have tested positive since the start of this year.
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics has had its fair share of controversy in the lead up to the event as initially there were calls for China to call of the Winter Olympics due to the outbreak of the omicron COVID-19 variant. There were also calls for athletes to boycott the Winter Olympics due to China’s human rights abuses.
Now that we are less than a week away from the commencement of this global event, China has decided to make some significant changes to its COVID-19 policies to make it easier for the athletes and support staff involved. Two of the changes that stand out are as follows.
Close contacts of a positive case will now no longer have to quarantine for 14 days as the quarantine period has now been reduced to 7 days. The cycle threshold (CT) for testing was earlier set at 40 but has now been dropped to just 35. The CT value generally depicts how contagious a person is, as a higher value denotes a lesser chance of being contagious.
The standard CT value in most countries was set at 35 but China decided to adopt a higher standard as it was pushing for a zero free COVID Winter Olympics games. However, based on the recommendations of Dr Brian McCloskey, the head of the medical expert panel for the 2022 Winter Olympics, the standard was reduced to 35.
McCloskey said the goal was not to have zero cases at the Winter Olympics but to ensure that there was zero spread at the Olympic village.
Massive Bubble Created At Olympic Village
To avoid the spread of COVID-19, a massive bubble has been created at the Olympic village where all athletes, coaches, staff and media will be confined two till the end of the Olympics.
Those who arrive at the Olympics must show a negative pre-departure test and another one on arrival. As of now, it looks like things are under control and the Winter Olympics will proceed as planned.
