Beijing Olympics’ Covid cases mounting at faster pace than Tokyo

Beijing identified more than 100 coronavirus infections over the past three days among those in China for the Winter Olympics

Beijing identified more than 100 coronavirus infections over the past three days among those in China for the Winter Olympics, taking the cumulative number of cases to 248 with four days to go before the opening ceremony.

At an average of 36 new cases a day, the increase has more than doubled the three-day average for Jan. 25-27 period. The total count already exceeds the number of infections Tokyo had in the run-up to the summer games last year, which were held before the more infectious omicron variant began to circulate. The Japanese capital tallied 121 Olympic-related cases in the three weeks before its opening ceremony.

The number of athletes and coaches who have tested positive in Beijing, meanwhile, has been relatively low. As of Sunday, there had only been 51 infections among the various teams. Organizers have attributed 197 cases to other stakeholders, a group that includes journalists and diplomats. 

A pickup in Olympic-related Covid cases is expected as more personnel arrive, Huang Chun, a top virus-control official on the Chinese committee organizing the event, said at a briefing in Beijing on Saturday. There has been no spread of the virus inside the closed loop so far, he added.

All those in the Chinese capital for the Olympics are being kept within a tightly controlled bubble, as authorities look to ensure that outbreaks in the broader population are not seeded by travelers from abroad. China is the last major economy still pursuing a so-called Covid Zero approach to dealing with the pandemic, which employs partial lock-downs, mass testing and sealed borders in an effort to stamp out the virus.

For the Olympics, however, Beijing has loosened some of those protocols in the closed loop in an effort to ensure the games can proceed with less disruption. That included lowering the testing threshold at which participants are considered virus-free. Those determined to be a close contact of someone infected by the virus are also being required to quarantine for just seven days, instead of the minimum of 14 days Chinese authorities require outside the Olympics.