Beijing lockdown during Winter Olympic not an option for now: Oranizing Committee

Beijing: The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games said locking down Beijing during the Winter Olympic Games is not an option, for now, adding that the COVID-19 prevention policies will be adjusted if a large-scale outbreak occurs during the closed-loop operation of the event. 

As the Winter Olympics are only three weeks away and China is now facing waves of new COVID-19 outbreaks from both Omicron and Delta variants, Huang Chun, a senior official from the organizing committee said that unless there's a large, systematic outbreak during the event, there's no need to adjust the current COVID-19 prevention policies. Yet there is room for flexibility of changing policies, said Huang, noting that at the current



stage, locking down Beijing is not an option.

In recent months, Chinese authorities have imposed ever more stringent restrictions to curb local Covid flare-ups as Beijing prepares for the Winter Olympics. An Omicron outbreak in Beijing’s neighboring city Tianjin just weeks before the Games begin on February 4 puts an uphill task before the officials who are now likely to ramp up efforts to protect the capital Beijing and China’s “Zero-COVID” policy. No details are yet out about the fans present in the stadiums. 

Meanwhile, Capital Beijing has issued notice to its residents “not to travel during upcoming Chinese Year holidays unless absolutely necessary.”