The build-up to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing has been hit by Covid-19 after a spate of positive tests for the virus.
With the opening ceremony due to get underway on Friday, February 4, the Winter Games organising committee confirmed that 34 new infections were detected among competitors and team officials.
According to a report in the Daily Mail , comprising that number were 23 cases among new airport arrivals, while 11 were people already in the so-called 'closed loop' bubble that separates event personnel from the public, as organisers bid to keep infections to a minimum.
Regulations allow athletes to move without restriction between their accommodations and Olympic venues on official transport, but they are not allowed to travel around the city of Beijing itself. All personnel involved in the Games, including journalists and venue officials, are also tested on a daily basis.
Among those to have tested positive are Austrian ski jumper Marita Kramer and Poland's short track skater Natalia Maliszewska, both medal hopefuls in China.
Maliszewska, the eighth Polish athlete to test positive, is due to line up in the 500m heats on Saturday, and will now be one of many sweating on her potential involvement. Athletes who test positive and show no symptoms can be discharged from isolation so long as they can produce two consecutive negative tests 24 hours apart.
Australian curling star Tahli Gill, who has teamed up with Dean Hewitt to become the country's first duo to qualify in curling at the Winter Olympics, will be cleared to compete despite testing positive at the airport.
Her result was later dubbed a false positive, and Australian team chef de mission Geoff Lipshut said it was a huge relief that the pair could now compete after defying the odds to qualify.
“They have dealt with this extremely well and we are very proud of them. Now they can resume their preparation for the start of competition on Wednesday,” he said.
Gill said she contracted Covid while training in Canada earlier this month and was cleared to travel after testing negative but the ultra-sensitive equipment at Beijing airport detected her past infection.
China has thus far imposed some of the strictest Covid-19 protocols in the world, isolating itself from other countries by adopting a zero-tolerance policy and cancelling nearly all international flights.
Olympic athletes and workers can only fly directly into the city on charter flights.
