- Nine arrivals test positive at Beijing airport, days after IOC eases negative result threshold
- No locally transmitted Omicron cases for three straight days in city
The number of Covid-19 cases related to the Winter Olympics has risen to 106, with nine more arrivals testing positive at the airport in host city Beijing, reports SCMP.
All nine are in the category of “other stakeholders”, which usually refers to the media and Games partners.
Restrictions to protect the Olympic bubble
Other stakeholders accounted for 98 per cent of cases discovered since January 4, with just one athlete and a team official among the 106 found infected out of some 3,000 arrivals.
This comes as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Monday eased the PCR test threshold for Covid-19 positive cases – lowering the CT value cut-off from 40 to 35 – and also modified the definition of close contacts. Some athletes have complained about Beijing’s strict zero-case bubble.
Days before the Winter Games open on February 4, Beijing has imposed extreme restrictions on movement to protect the Olympic bubble.
Contact between Games participants and the Beijing public is strictly forbidden, with passers-by barred from helping even if an Olympic vehicle crashes.
After a recent outbreak sparked weeks of mass testing and quarantine, Beijing authorities on Wednesday said there had not been any Omicron case locally for three days in a row.
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Source: SCMP
