The International Olympic Committee and the Organizing Committee for the Beijing Games announced on Sunday that they have adjusted the screening criteria for COVID-19, less than two weeks before the Olympic Games are held.
Posted at 11:47 a.m.
Thus, the detectability thresholds and the determining factors of screening have been revised downwards for all those who will set foot in Beijing in the coming days.
The two organizations explain their decision based on the new Omicron variant, which spreads faster and requires a shorter incubation period. Thus, athletes and visitors will be able to enter the Olympic Village with a positivity threshold of 35, instead of 40, but will still have to be subject to a period of quarantine and isolation. They will no longer represent a danger when they have tested negative on the tests for three consecutive days.
Then, the period necessary and requested to assess the health of those who have been in contact with a positive person, or who will have tested positive at a threshold higher than 35, will now be seven days, instead of 14.
These new measures will certainly provide relief to Canadian athletes in bobsleigh, women’s hockey and short track speed skating. All of these teams have had fairly large outbreaks over the past few days.
The Olympic Games will start on February 4 in Beijing.