BEIJING — The
Beijing Olympics are taking place in a strict “closed loop” with 60,000
competitors, journalists, and the Chinese workforce looking after them cut off
from local people and tested for COVID-19 every day.
اضافة اعلان
Media and workers have to stay in approved
hotels within the “loop” — the organizers’ alternative name for a coronavirus bubble,
designed to protect participants from the virus and the Chinese population from
the foreign mini-invasion.
Wire fences seal off the area containing the
Olympic venues and media center in
Beijing from the rest of the capital and the
only way in is by shuttle bus or approved taxi.
Security guards bar the way of anyone who
tries to walk out of the hotel grounds.
Bags are scanned as guests leave their
hotels. Before boarding the bus, they must walk over to two cabins where staff
in full protective gear awkwardly carry out mouth swabs from behind a
plexiglass screen.
Once they pass into the Olympic area, the
striking “Bird’s Nest” stadium in the distance is a poignant reminder of the
more carefree 2008 Summer Olympics, when a fresh-faced Usain Bolt was roared to
victory by a capacity crowd.
Those scenes belong to a different,
pre-pandemic era. This time, the general public will be barred from sports
venues because of
COVID-19 precautions, although some invited guests will be
allowed to watch.
Local organizer are reluctant to say exactly
how many people are inside the “closed loop”, but the IOC says the number of
daily COVID-19 tests is a reliable reflection — on Saturday, 61,060 were
carried out.
The Games don’t officially begin until Friday
but there are already virus cases in the bubble organizer said Sunday that 11
people, three of them athletes or other team personnel, tested positive in the
most recently available results.
There is no getting out. Everyone, from cooks
to bus drivers to volunteers, must sleep and eat inside the bubble.
All the Chinese workers will have to
quarantine for up to three weeks when the Olympic circus moves on.
The cocoon encompasses all the Games venues,
stretching to the Yanqing alpine skiing area and to Zhangjiakou outside Beijing,
where the snowboarding and cross-country skiing events will be held.
Beijing recorded its highest number of new
cases for a year and a half on Sunday, with 20 in the capital.
Olympic organizers are confident that their
measures will stop these Games adding to the rising infection numbers.
A similar system was in operation for last
year’s pandemic-delayed Tokyo Summer Olympics, but the measures in Beijing are
more stringent.
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