Organizers of the Beijing Winter Olympics sought to assure participants on Tuesday that the February event would operate nearly as normal, with vendors selling souvenirs, foreign cuisines and beer at venues - but all inside a self-contained bubble, Reuters reports.
The Games will take place Feb. 4 to Feb. 20, without overseas spectators and with all participants subject to daily COVID-19 tests, as China sticks with a zero-COVID policy using some of the world’s most stringent measures.
Much about how the games will be conducted remains uncertain, including how tickets will be distributed to local spectators, who will be segregated from athletes and other personnel at venues in the city of Beijing and at Zhangjiakou in Hebei province.
“Nothing has changed at all - just the COVID prevention measures, which are like donning a raincoat,” Xu Jicheng, an official with Beijing Organizing Committee (BOCOG), told a media briefing.
Such measures, including strict isolation from those outside the Games, could be “a little inconvenient,” he acknowledged.
During the games, athletes, journalists, staff and volunteers will remain within a “bubble” under a so-called closed-loop management.
