COVID cases inside the Olympics “closed loop” and at the Beijing airport

On the website of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the following information on PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2, both at the Beijing airport and within the special “closed loop” around the Olympic venues, was recently reported:

From 4 to 22 January, 2022, 2,586 Olympic-related arrivals entered China at the airport, including 171 athletes and team officials and 2,415 other stakeholders. They took the airport PCR tests. After confirmatory tests, 39 confirmed positive cases had been notified, and all of them are from other stakeholders.

In the closed loop during the same time, 336,421 PCR tests had been taken, 175 by athletes and team officials and 336,246 by other stakeholders. After confirmatory tests, 33 confirmed positive cases had been notified, and all of them are from other stakeholders.

All Olympic-related personnel who entered China and Games staffs implement closed-loop management. They are completely separated from the outside society.

In addition, on Jan. 23, another six people tested positive by PCR. Four of these were tested at the Beijing airport, and two tested positive inside the Olympic venue “closed loop.” 

Thus, with 10 days remaining until the start of the Feb. 4-20 Olympics and subsequent Paralympics in March, a total of 78 people have tested positive by PCR for SARS-CoV-2, with 43 at the Beijing airport and 35 within the “closed loop” around the Olympic venues. None of these 78 are athletes. The numbers of Omicron, Delta or other variants among these 78 positive tests was not provided. 

China is striving to achieve “zero-COVID spread” whether inside the “closed loop” or from the Olympics-associated events to the wider Chinese population.