On Sunday, Beijing saw the highest Covid-19 cases in a year and a half, as the Chinese city prepares to organize the Beijing Olympics in 5 days.
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As part of their zero-Covid policy of focused lockdowns, China will host the Event in a stringent "closed-loop" shell. The strategy has helped the world's largest country contain new infections at a much lower rate than other nations. Although, it is still dealing with local outbreaks in a handful of cities, and also in the Olympic shell.
The number of infections among players and team personnel at the Beijing Winter Olympics increased to 19 on Friday. Organisers indicated that more cases will emerge in the days ahead. However, The organising committee stated in a statement on Saturday that 36 Games-related personnel, including organisers, were determined to be contaminated — 29 when they landed at the Beijing airport and seven already within the "closed-loop" bubble that protects event staff from the general public.
"We are now just going through the peak period of people arriving in China and therefore we expect to see the highest numbers at this stage. Organizers are "confident" in their system of Covid-19 prevention, and infections are unlikely to leak out into the public," the Games' medical chief, Brian McCloskey declared in a press conference.
For the very first time since China began providing the statistics of Olympics-related coronavirus infections on Jan. 23, infections amongst players and team officials outnumbered those among "other stakeholders," such as media, and employees, according to a Reuters tally of earlier declarations.
The player's reactions
According to Russian hockey player Anton Slepyshev, "it's annoying that every morning you need to get up a little earlier especially to get a PCR test. I think that in a few days, it will be like brushing your teeth."
"Everyone is concerned that the test result will suddenly turn out to be positive. But the reality is such that we are living with Covid. We accept all the risks and fears," he further added.
The status of the event
The Games will take place from Friday through February 20, in a bubble isolated from the rest of China by the government's zero-tolerance Covid19 policy, which has effectively closed China's gate to outside visitors.