China mandates 3-day Olympic torch relay amid virus concerns

BEIJING (AP) — China is limiting the torch relay for the Winter Olympics to solely three days amid coronavirus worries, organizers mentioned Friday.

The flame will likely be displayed solely in enclosed venues which can be deemed “protected and controllable,” in response to officers.

No public transit routes can be disturbed and regular life would proceed for the 20 million residents of the capital, the place a handful of latest COVID-19 instances have been recorded over latest days.

Beijing’s deputy sports activities director, Yang Haibin, mentioned security was the “prime precedence,” with the pandemic, venue preparations and the opportunity of forest fires in Beijing’s chilly, dry local weather all factored in.

The relay will run from Feb. 2-4, taking within the three competitors areas of downtown Beijing, the suburb of Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou within the neighboring province of Hebei.

The Video games have already been impacted on a scale much like that skilled by Tokyo throughout final yr’s Summer season Olympics.

China says solely chosen spectators will likely be allowed to attend the occasions, and Olympic athletes, officers, employees and journalists are required to remain inside a bubble that retains them from contact with most of the people.

The opening of the Video games comes simply days after the beginning of the Lunar New Yr vacation, China’s largest annual celebration when thousands and thousands historically journey to their hometowns for household reunions. For the second yr, the federal government has suggested these dwelling away from residence to remain put, and practice and airplane journey has been curtailed.

Contributors within the torch rally will bear well being screens and be rigorously monitored, ranging from two weeks earlier than the occasion begins, mentioned Xu Zhijun, deputy head of the organizing committee.

Beijing reported its first native omicron an infection on Jan. 15, and 11 instances had been confirmed within the capital as of Thursday afternoon, the official Xinhua Information Company reported.

Exterior of Beijing, a number of million folks stay underneath lockdown as a part of China’s “zero-tolerance“ method to coping with the pandemic that has been credited with stopping outbreaks on the dimensions of the U.S. and different nations.

Numbers of latest instances have dropped considerably in latest days amid strict adherence to masking, journey restrictions and faculty closures, together with a vaccination fee that now tops 85%. Some medical specialists fear an absence of publicity to the virus might hurt the Chinese language inhabitants’s potential to take care of future waves of an infection.

The scaled-down torch relay is a far cry from 2008, when Beijing despatched the Olympic icon on a worldwide journey forward of its internet hosting of that yr’s Summer season Video games. The relay drew protesters in opposition to China’s human rights violations and insurance policies in Tibet, Xinjiang and elsewhere, resulting in violent confrontations and the cancellation of some abroad levels.

The Winter Video games have been beset by related political controversies, alongside medical concerns.

Six weeks in the past, the US, Britain and several other allies mentioned they might not ship dignitaries to attend the Video games as a protest in opposition to human rights abuses by the Communist Get together regime.

Athletes have been threatened by the organizing committee with “sure punishments” for saying or doing something that will offend their Chinese language hosts, whereas a number of delegations urged anybody headed to Beijing to take “burner” telephones as a substitute of their private units due to considerations their private data might be compromised.

The Nationwide Hockey League cited uncertainty attributable to the pandemic to carry again all of its gamers from the Olympic match.

And earlier this week, American broadcaster NBC mentioned it gained’t be sending saying groups to China, citing the identical virus considerations raised when the community pulled most of its broadcasters from the Tokyo Video games.

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Extra AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports