Beijing (dpa) – The strict protective measures at the Winter Games in Beijing are still proving to be effective. For the second time this week, no new corona infections were discovered in the closed Olympic bubble.
As the organizers announced, all of the 68,970 corona tests carried out the day before inside the bubble were negative. No new cases were detected in Olympic participants at Beijing Airport either.
The total number of infections since the start of travel to the Winter Games on January 23 was thus still 435. While more than 30 infections per day were registered at times at the start of the Games, the number of new cases has recently generally been in the low single-digit range. The low number of infections shows “that the protective measures within the closed circuit are effective,” said Huang Chun, the vice director of the Chinese organizing committee responsible for preventing the corona pandemic, on Thursday.
According to him, none of the thousands of volunteers within the corona bubble tested positive for the virus during the entire Olympic period. “This is a successful model for Winter Games against the background of the corona pandemic,” said Huang Chun.
Strict precautions apply at the Winter Games. All participants, from athletes to coaches to journalists, are only allowed to move within the Olympic bubble and are completely cut off from the rest of the country. Anyone who has contracted the virus will be isolated in a specially designated hotel.