Omicron Deepens Uncertainty Surrounding Beijing Olympics

INA – SOURCES
 
The Winter Olympics are three weeks away, however tickets have but to go on sale. Airlines are shifting schedules, creating journey confusion. Now, a spate of CORONAVIRUS outbreaks round China — together with some domestically transmitted instances of the fast-spreading Omicron variant — is including to the uncertainty forward of the Games in Beijing.
 
As of Wednesday, greater than 20 million individuals remained confined to their properties in at the least 5 cities round China. Especially worrying for officers has been a current flare-up in Tianjin, a port metropolis simply 70 miles from Beijing that Chinese state media have beforehand likened to a “moat” defending the nation’s capital.
 
Officials have but to find out the supply of the Tianjin outbreak that contaminated 137 individuals, together with at the least two with the Omicron variant. One native well being official mentioned that the virus appeared to have been spreading in the neighborhood “for a while.” On Wednesday, officers in Tianjin ordered a second spherical of mass testing of all 14 million residents.
 
The surge in infections even earlier than the arrival of 1000's of athletes, journalists and officers underscores the problem Chinese organizers face in attempting to carry the Games whereas sticking to Beijing’s “zero COVID” requirements. The nation is without doubt one of the few left on this planet that chases the elimination of the virus, regardless of the cruel measures wanted and the price imposed on the economic system and other people’s lives.
 
Even earlier than Omicron emerged, Beijing’s Games have been by no means going to be a typical affair. The well being protocols organizers specified by the autumn had already made it clear that the Games, that are scheduled to start on Feb. 4, can be essentially the most terribly restricted large-scale sporting occasion because the begin of the pandemic.
 
People who're unvaccinated must spend their first 21 days in Beijing in solitary quarantine. Fully vaccinated contributors shall be required to stay in a tightly managed “closed-loop” bubble from the second they arrive in Beijing to the time they depart. They additionally should current two damaging assessments earlier than arrival, take assessments day by day and submit well being experiences to the authorities utilizing a cellular app.
 
Despite the current outbreaks, the organizers seem decided to ship the “inexperienced, protected and easy” Games that China’s authoritarian chief, Xi Jinping, known as for final week. Officials mentioned the authorities thus far had no plans to lock down Beijing, or to vary both the Olympics schedule or virus-control measures in response to Omicron.