The coronavirus continues to impact sporting events. The Beijing Winter Olympics, from February 4 to 20, 2022, will be held without foreign spectators and will therefore be reserved for the Chinese public, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Wednesday.
In addition, according to the Olympic body, only fully vaccinated participants will be exempt from quarantine, and will integrate a strict bubble. The others will have to observe 21 days of isolation, except case by case exemption with a “proof of medical exemption”.
The closed session is excluded for the moment
These decisions, announced by the IOC but taken by the Chinese organizers, are a foretaste of the package of measures that will be unveiled in October to prevent the Winter Games from turning into the source of contamination, a threat that had already poisoned the world. preparation for the Tokyo Olympics this summer.
As the epidemic situation evolves, marked both by the spread of Covid-19 variants and by increasingly extensive vaccine coverage, the options selected differ from those in Tokyo: closed doors are excluded for the time being, and the treatment of athletes will depend on their vaccination status. The Olympic “bubble” – a closed-circuit organization now familiar to the sports world – also promises to be more rigorous than in Japan. It will not allow mingling with the population, and provides for a daily Covid-19 test for “all participants in the Games”, as well as “for the workforce” residing in China.