China wants the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics to go off without a hitch — and without jeopardizing the country’s "zero COVID" strategy. That suggests broader and stricter restrictions compared with Tokyo's Summer Games, which logged around 430 cases.
Beijing organizers haven’t announced their COVID containment measures, though long quarantines and athlete bubbles are inevitable. Authorities also plan to limit international arrivals ahead of and during the events.
Meanwhile, another mass athletic event will begin next week in Xi’an, showcasing measures Beijing might employ. Some 13,000 of the country’s top athletes will compete in the National Games, the biggest domestic sporting event since the pandemic began and widely considered a run-up to the Olympics, which begin Feb. 4.