Beijing OK reports new figures
Omikron also reaches the German Olympic team
2/2/2022, 8:35 am
The arrival of the athletes to the Winter Olympics in Beijing is overshadowed by numerous positive corona tests. Although there is an Olympic bubble in the “no-Covid country” China, the virus has long since arrived there. The German Olympic team is also affected.
The German Olympic team in Beijing has its second corona case. One of the 85 members of the team who entered China on Tuesday had tested positive for the virus, the German Olympic Sports Confederation said. The DOSB did not want to say whether it was an athlete or a supervisor. All other 84 team members who arrived on Tuesday tested negative.
The affected team member is symptom-free and has to move to a quarantine hotel. Depending on the result of the further test, “the further procedure will be determined,” it said. A few days ago, a German supervisor in the Zhangjiakou mountain region was diagnosed with a corona infection.
“We said before that we would have difficulties, that the difficulty would be to let the athletes from Germany fly to Beijing without a virus. We actually have a very small problem here thanks to the perfect protective measures taken by the individual associations,” said Chef de Mission Dirk Schimmelpfennig and referred to the two cases so far. “We had expected that. All in all, one has to say that the balance sheet with a lot of people who arrive negative, who remain negative after one, two, three days and therefore have a huge chance of being virus-free in the bladder, is very gratifying.”
A total of 232 infections already
149 athletes were nominated for the German Olympic team. They should travel to China in several groups. Strict measures to protect against the corona virus apply to the Winter Games, which open on Friday. Even before departure, all those involved in the Olympics had to be tested several times and were required to reduce their contacts as much as possible. In China, further PCR tests follow daily after entry in order to quickly detect infections and prevent the virus from spreading.
The organizers have found a total of 32 other corona cases. As the organizing committee reported, 15 people entering the country tested positive for the corona virus the day before. 17 infections were also found in people who had previously traveled to Beijing and were already in the closed Olympic bubble. Nine athletes or team members were among those reported infected on Wednesday. The total number of corona cases has risen to a total of 232 since January 23. The cases involve either inbound travelers or people already in the Olympic bubble.
The Chinese organizers have set up an Olympic bubble that is controlled even more strictly than at the last summer games in Tokyo. Any contact between those involved in the Olympics and the Chinese population outside of this so-called “closed circuit” should be prevented. Anyone who has contracted the virus will be isolated in a specially designated hotel. Only after two negative PCR tests at least 24 hours apart can those affected leave before the end of ten days. After this period, only a negative PCR test is required.