Arrival Of Foreigners At The Winter Olympics Is Predicted To Increase COVID-19 Cases

One of the venues for the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Big Air Shougang (Twitter @Beijing2022)

JAKARTA - Organizers of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on Thursday predicted a "certain number" of COVID-19 cases in China after foreigners flocked to watch the championships.

Therefore, the organizing committee expects Olympic participating countries to complete their vaccination programs following the spread of the new type of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus.

The Olympics will run from February 4 to February 20 and all matches will take place in a "closed space" to contain the spread of the virus in China as one of the countries with the most stringent COVID restrictions in the world and has largely managed to contain it.

"A large number of people from all over the world will visit China and surely this flow of people will increase. As a result, a number of positive cases will become high-probability events," Han Zirong, vice president and general secretary of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, said at the conference. press quoted from Antara, Thursday.

China, which has closed its borders during the pandemic and has not allowed overseas spectators to the Olympics, has reported five cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, including four from people arriving from abroad.

Omicron's rapid spread in North America led the National Hockey League of America to announce on Wednesday that its players would not be participating in Beijing while ensuring the absence of big names in the sport from the Olympic stage.