THE HAZMAT
Safety suits for staff as ring of steel put up around airport Cops & CCTV cut movements of athletes put in strict ‘bubble’
WITH teams of government staff in full Hazmat suits, masks and gloves and a ring of steel around the airport, Beijing 2022 is an Olympics like no other.
Even Tokyo’s delayed 2020 Summer Games last year allowed movement outside the competition “bubble”. Here, there is a police van outside the hotel with cameras on top and multiple screens inside to monitor the visitors’ every movement. They are there to ensure no one ventures outside the confines of the building, unless it’s to board an official bus. Inside, you pass multiple security cameras before breakfast. They are on every floor, in the lifts and in reception. There is a temperature check as you enter the restaurant and reporters are served cocktails by staff decked out in PPE gear.
A guest who dared to venture past the gates was stopped as an alarm went off.
He revealed: “I was told that I had to stay inside the Olympic bubble.”
To move through Beijing’s airport amid a pandemic is to be transported into a sci-fi movie, the terminal deserted despite signs for Olympic sponsors and welcome posters.
There are sentries and police vans parked by the bus terminal set up for competitors, coaches, support staff, media and officials. Outside the roads are deserted, the car parks empty.
Long lines of 2022 buses travel in a convoy with a security vehicle in front to monitor arrivals in this city of 22 million people, in a nation in the grip of the world’s most severe restrictions.
Everyone entering China has to undergo a series of security checks, including PCR tests at the airport.
Details of departure, Covid test results, previous foreign travel, a health questionnaire and a customs declaration are required. Each stage of arrival is monitored by officials in full white chemical suits and masks.
You can only leave your hotel once a negative test result comes through.
I arrive with team members from Britain, Germany, Austria and Finland, with long lines of skis, kit and gear in a room ready for collection. Each X-ray of the bags and equipment is followed by a spray of cleaning liquids.
Some athletes are then taken on a five-hour bus ride to their hotels and training quarters, making it a 20-hour journey for most European nations.
For these Winter Games, you have to
Whatever you do, do not try & go anywhere which is not allowed
beat Covid first, and your competitors second. I made the mistake of walking through a holding area as I thought all the checks had been carried out
Officials in Hazmat (hazardous material) suits pointed me to a waiting area; checks include permission granted to athletes who have tested positive.
One skier was cruelly infected last month. In the long queues at the airport, he told me: “If you get Covid, it does affect you and your training as well.
“The bureaucratic hoops that you have to jump through to get here have this psychological impact. Just getting here is an achievement for the athletes.”
Like many competitors, he was happy just to have made it to the starting line, let alone a podium place.
One official was returning for ice hockey after a series of test events in China. He shook his head when asked about the restrictions on movement, saying: “Whatever you do, don’t try and go anywhere which is not allowed.”
Omicron seeped into China shortly before these Games and the government locked down millions of Chinese citizens.
Cases were detected in Tianjin, a city of 14 million just 70 miles from Beijing, leading to mass testing sites and road closures as rail and air travel was hit.
Some Beijing residents still manage to potter around on bikes and public transport but even the country’s famous New Year celebrations were restricted last week.
President Xi Jinping is trying to safeguard his xero-Covid strategy. He argues Hazmat suits, masks, and fiercelyenforced lockdowns have ensured a country of 1.4 billion citizens has had fewer cases than some regions of the UK.
But his strategy is under pressure as China’s jabs offer less protection than more sophisticated Western versions.
The country that had the first outbreak in Wuhan is now facing the ultimate test with an estimated 60,000 visitors for an Olympic Games.
China has been accused of using forced Uyghur labour, operating a mass surveillance programme, detaining thousands in internment camps and carrying out forced sterilisations.
It has also faced claims of destroying Uyghur heritage in the Xinjiang region.
Beijing has alleged the camps are training centres for stamping out Islamist extremism and separatism.
The US has led international concern over the alleged human rights abuses, sparking a Games boycott by diplomats including Britain’s.
OFFICIAL ON THE SEVERE RESTRICTIONS IN BEIJING