Test events go smoothly as scheduled, says Beijing 2022 organizing committee

BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (BOCOG) said on a press conference Friday that test events which started on Oct. 5 have been going smoothly as scheduled.

Two athletes from overseas who tested positive for COVID-19, both asymptomatic, have been isolated, according to the organizers.

Yao Hui, venue management director for Beijing 2022, said the test events have been going on as scheduled, with six international competitions including the Speed Skating China Open, the 2021 Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy and the ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating successfully concluding in the capital city. The BOCOG has arranged flights for athletes, officials and technical staff who will participate in the following test activities.

Huang Chun, deputy director general of the Pandemic Prevention and Control Office at the BOCOG, told the press conference that two athletes from overseas tested positive for COVID-19, both of whom were asymptomatic. One got a positive PCR test result at customs and was confirmed positive in a retest on Nov. 4. The other was a close contact of the first, found positive in daily testing on Thursday. Now, the two athletes have been taken to isolation facilities in accordance with the playbook.

The close contacts of the two athletes have been quarantined in respective single rooms, are dining alone and using dedicated shuttles between the quarantine location and the venue.

As the playbook specifies, close contacts will be allowed to participate in the Games with negative COVID-19 test results in twice daily testing. For confirmed positive athletes, they will be isolated in accordance with the guidelines in the playbook before meeting the requirements of discharge. If the athletes wish to return to their game-time roles, they will be asked to adopt additional countermeasures that apply to close contacts.

The closed loop is a strict system to protect the health and safety of participants, but the BOCOG always endeavors to provide all athletes with friendly services, including currency exchange, hairdressing, convenience stores and a coffee shop.

Polish luger Mateusz Sochowicz fractured his leg on Monday afternoon when he was attending a training session organized by the FIL Luge International Training Week in the Yanqing competition zone. He was immediately taken to hospital and received surgery that night, and is expected to leave the hospital on Friday.

"Medical workers arrived at the accident location in three minutes, and it took about 30 minutes to take Sochowicz to hospital. They tried their best to rush to hospital as quickly as possible with safe driving on mountain roads," Yao said.