Pyeongchang ready to battle cold snap, norovirus

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea: The Pyeongchang Winter Olympics are on track though organisers are battling the spread of a virus among staff and preparing to deal with the cold snap at Friday’s opening ceremony, Games chief Lee Heebeom said on Tuesday.

Lee said preparations for the first winter Olympics in Asia outside Japan were complete with athletes arriving in the South Korean town.

“We are fully operational with many of our athletes and officials here and settling into their life in the villages and training is underway at all venues,” Lee told a news conference.

But he said some 1,200 private security staff have been sidelined as fear of a norovirus among some of them has forced organisers to replace them with military personnel pending medical tests.

The virus is highly contagious and causes vomiting and stomach cramps among other symptoms.

Athletes from several countries were taken ill and some were forced to miss competitions at last year’s world athletics championship in London when the virus was found to have spread through one hotel.

“As a president of POCOG (organising committee), I would like to apologise for this,” Lee said.

“Our disease control centre other related government agencies here are now discussing countermeasures and will come up with proper measures and will be announced soon.”

The IOC said leaflets about the virus with instructions on what to do were being distributed.

“That is the first thing but you will have also hand sanitisers,” Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi told reporters.

“All areas are getting disinfected. They (organisers) will be extremely diligent to sanitise anything that came into contact with the persons. Very stringent measures are in place when it comes to food and beverage.”