Thirty-two athletes from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are being quarantined in designated facilities after testing positive for Covid-19, the Games’ organisers revealed on Tuesday, following complaints from several quarantined athletes about terrible living circumstances.
The Olympics’ organisers are striving to bring as many individuals out of seclusion as possible in a safe manner, according to Brian McCloskey, the event’s chief medical specialist.
He also stated that 50 sportsmen had been released from isolation and that the “great majority” of the separated persons do not require medical care.
According to McCloskey, everyone in the Olympic bubble is being checked on a regular basis, and virtually everyone has been vaccinated, therefore the chances of contracting Covid in the bubble are “smaller than everywhere else in the world.”
While this, some athletes have tested positive, and McCloskey said organisers are trying their best to distinguish between persons who test positive occasionally for a long period despite not being infectious and those who have been re-infected and are potential of transmitting the virus.
Earlier last week, officials from numerous participating nations at the Beijing Olympics expressed dissatisfaction with the conditions of confined athletes. On Sunday, the head coach of Finland’s men’s ice hockey team accused the organisers of violating one of the squad’s players’ human rights when he tested positive for Covid-19. The coach said that player Marko Anttila was “not receiving nourishment” and was under a lot of pressure. Anttila was ordered to remain in isolation, according to the Finnish team doctor, despite testing positive 18 days before and no longer being deemed contagious. On Saturday, another solitary athlete, German skier Eric Frenzel, complained about the isolation facility’s lack of hygiene, bad food, and insufficient WiFi. Kim Meylemans, a Belgian skeleton racer, also shared an emotional video on Instagram on Wednesday after being transported to a second isolation facility after first being approved from the event’s Covid regulations.
