Beijing halts Olympics ticket sales
China has announced that tickets to the Winter Olympics will no longer be sold to the general public, as the country’s capital has recorded its first case of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Last northern autumn, Beijing had already limited tickets to the Games to domestic spectators. Yesterday, Beijing’s Winter Olympics Organising Committee said this would be further restricted: Only certain approved groups will be allowed to watch the Olympics in person, after undergoing strict measures to prevent transmission of coronavirus.
‘‘Given the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, in order to ensure the safety of all participants and spectators, it has been decided that tickets should not be sold anymore but be part of an adapted programme that will invite groups of spectators to be present on site during the Games,’’ the International Olympic Committee said.
The lone case of Omicron registered on Sunday in Beijing sparked mass testing of 13,000 residents who might have crossed paths with the patient, whom authorities said visited several restaurants and malls before testing positive.
It also led Beijing to bar entry to anyone who has visited any Chinese city that recorded even a single case of the coronavirus in the past 14 days.
‘‘Beijing has already entered the Winter Olympics period, and is facing the dual pressures of preventing external entry and internal transmission,’’ Beijing city spokesman Xu Hejian said, according to the official People’s Daily Online.
The southern hi-tech city of Shenzhen also reported its first Omicron case on Monday, which state media said was a 21-year-old woman who worked at a company that imported frozen chemicals. A week ago, Tianjin, a port city near the capital, discovered two cases of Omicron, prompting testing of all its 14 million inhabitants.
Athletes and others arriving for the Olympics, which begin February 4, will be kept in a bubble and will not be able to enter the rest of Beijing.
China had gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent the spread of Omicron in recent weeks, locking down entire cities. One major motivator has been authorities’ desire to put their best foot forward for the Winter Games. They are also concerned that much of the country may lack immunity, with China’s vaccines less effective against omicron and most of the population still waiting for a booster shot.
China’s borders remain largely closed. Last week, the country’s Civil Aviation Administration halted several of the few remaining flights from the United States to China, along with some flights from other countries, citing coronavirus infections among passengers. The constraints on business and travel in the country have taken their toll economically. On Monday, China announced its gross domestic product grew by only 4 per cent in the fourth quarter, its weakest expansion in a year and a half.