China's Precautions for the Winter Olympics for COVID. What is happening?

The XXIV Olympic Winter Games will be happening this year in Beijing, China as well as some of the towns around it. It started on February 2, 2022 and continued until the 20th, when it ended with an amazing ceremony. The Winter Olympics has 15 different games: Snowboarding, Ice hockey, Curling, Figure Skating, Biathlon, Alpine skiing, Bobsled,  Cross country skiing,  Speed skating, Skeleton, Luge, Freestyle skiing, Short-track, and Nordic Combined. Athletes come from all over the world to compete for gold, silver, and bronze medals, but unfortunately due to the Covid-19 virus some athletes will not make it.

Beijing has a lot of precautions that it will be taking to ensure the minimization of Covid-19 spread. The Olympic athletes, their coaches, and officials have already started to  arrive from outside of the country and are immediately screened and  tested when they get off the plane. Any people that are tested positive must go into government supervised isolation. As well as testing the foreigners, Beijing has also decreed that the locals are not allowed to buy tickets.

The groups of local spectators that make up the audience will be specially “invited” to the events. They will also have to endure strict Covid precautions before, during, and after the games. Civilians are also not allowed to travel to Beijing from other parts of China, in order to keep the spread low. People that are part of it in any way, from the audience and volunteers, to cooks and athletes, will be separated into bubbles in which they cannot have any contact with the outside world. China will also lockdown any cities or neighborhoods that have positive cases detected. Any public transport, as well as schools are suspended for the duration of the games.

Now that we have the facts, let's hear what some students in our school have to say about it. They would like to stay anonymous but be known as M and E.

Teyo: Do you watch the Olympic Winter Games

M: Yes.

E: No.

Teyo: Do you think Covid will make a difference in how the games are played?

M: Yes I do.

E: Yes I think it will.

Teyo: How will it change?

M: There will be less athletes and less audience .

E: The athletes will be less pressured because of the minimal amount of audience.

Teyo: If you were an athlete would you compete during this Covid-19 spike?

M: No I would not .

E: Yes I would because other contestants might not compete so there will be less   competition. And it will be less stressful.

It is unsure if these precautions will actually achieve the “Zero Covid” goal that China is going for, but it will probably stop the spread. You also can check out the schedule and streaming for the Winter Olympics on their website, and see whether it works for yourself!