After two years of being largely cut off from the world, Beijing is bracing itself for the arrival of thousands of foreign Olympians, officials, journalists and support staff — including from countries where the highly transmissible Omicron variant rages.
Whether the Chinese authorities can keep the Games Covid safe and prevent flare-ups from entering Beijing is the ultimate test of China’s zero-covid strategy. The strict prevention and control measures are being presented by the ruling Communist Party as proof of the supposed superiority of its authoritarian political system. The strategy has kept infections and deaths low, but also led to painful lockdowns for millions of people and isolated China from the world.
And now Beijing is applying the same measures to the Olympics. To limit the spread of infection, it will shut down the entire Games within what authorities have termed a “closed loop system” — a bubble completely cut off from the rest of the city.
The quarantine is arguably the most ambitious of its kind ever undertaken. The NBA attempted something similar when it created a quarantine zone at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, designed to retain players and staff for the final stages of the 2019-20 season. But what Beijing is about to attempt is on a whole different level.
While the NBA bubble housed about 350 players from 22 teams, the Beijing bubble will welcome an estimated 11,000 people from around the world — and they will move through three league zones up to 180 kilometers apart.
Securing the bubble requires massive manpower, meticulous planning, ubiquitous oversight and rigorous government enforcement — and the arrival of Omicron has only made it more challenging.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in a statement Wednesday that so far 1.53% tests taken on arrival have been positive, while 0.02% of regular screening tests taken in the closed loop have been positive. It did not specify the number of total tests in either scenario.
“All cases so far are within 5 days of arrival and are therefore assessed as imported (contracted prior to arrival in Beijing). No infection has occurred within the closed loop,” the statement said.
More than 2,000 participants arrived in Beijing on Friday, according to the official app for the Beijing Winter Games, including athletes, officials, members of the IOC and media. Thousands of Chinese volunteers and employees have already spent days, if not weeks, in the closed loop.
Here’s an overview of how the bubble should work.
The divorce
Competitors will be held in the “closed loop” from the moment they hit the ground until they fly out. During their stay they will compete, work, eat and sleep without any contact with the wider Chinese population.
The “closed loop” consists of a series of stadiums, conference centers and more than 70 hotels, of which those in central Beijing are gated and closely guarded by police; it even has its own transportation system, with 4,000 vehicles dedicated to transporting participants from place to place.
Instead of one giant Olympic bubble, the system is made up of a network of interconnected mini-bubbles. They are concentrated in three zones: downtown Beijing, where the ice competitions and opening and closing ceremonies will be held; the suburban district of Yanqing, a location for downhill skiing and sliding; and Zhangjiakou, a town in neighboring Hebei province that hosts cross-country skiing and the bulk of freestyle skiing and snowboarding events.
The three zones are connected by high-speed trains and highways. To maintain separation, even the rail cars have been divided and the closed-loop buses have specially marked lanes. Drivers who are not part of the Olympics crossing these lanes will be fined.
In a sign of the effort Chinese authorities will do to prevent the bubble from bursting, residents have been warned not to rush to provide assistance if an Olympic vehicle is involved in an accident.
“In the event of traffic accidents involving special vehicles for the Winter Olympics, please pay attention to maintaining a safe distance,” Beijing traffic authorities said in a statement posted on social media earlier this month. “Do not interact with vehicles or personnel in them and wait for professionals to arrive.”
Athletes, staff and volunteers within the closed loop are also separated from spectators, who have their own transportation and access to the events. Beijing organizers announced this week that tickets to the Games will not be sold to the general public in response to the pandemic, but will instead be distributed by authorities.
Jump into the bubble
Given China’s determination to keep out Covid cases, reaching the bubble is already a challenge.
Anyone entering the bubble must be fully vaccinated, or must undergo an additional 21 days of quarantine upon arrival in Beijing before being allowed to enter the bubble.
The trip starts 14 days before departure. Participants should limit interactions with others to avoid contracting Covid. They also have to use an app every day to upload their body temperature and answer questions about their health status.
Anyone traveling to the Games must pass two Covid tests before departure. Since few international flights are allowed to land in Beijing, most participants have to take special charter flights. Upon arrival, they are greeted by workers in hazmat suits and undergo another test, before being transported to their hotel in special buses escorted by the police.
How are things inside?
Once inside the bubble, participants are subjected to a series of rigorous prevention and control measures. They are tested every day for Covid and must wear face masks at all times.
The stakes for catching Covid are extremely high. Entrants who test positive will be immediately expelled from the Games. Those who are symptomatic are sent to a designated hospital for treatment, while asymptomatic cases are taken to an isolation center. They may not return to the bubble until all symptoms have cleared and they test negative twice in a row – meaning they will almost certainly miss their event.
The PCR tests for the Beijing Winter Games are also more rigorous than those of other sporting events, such as the NBA and NHL, meaning they can return positive with a lower viral load.
A positive test can also affect the person’s teammates and co-workers. Anyone exposed to an infected person for more than 15 minutes without a mask is considered close contact and will be tested twice a day.
The Chinese authorities have not disclosed how many people will be in the “closed loop system”.
The Chinese staff and volunteers have to stay during the event, which means they will miss the Lunar New Year holiday. It is the largest festival in China and the most important time for families to get together – compared by many to Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Years together. To exit the bubble, they must also undergo strict quarantine for 21 days in a designated facility.
Chinese organizers have touted the innovative technologies used in the bubble to keep it Covid safe.
Will it work?
The IOC has suggested that the early detection of Covid-19 cases among arrivals is a sign that the “closed loop system” is working.
“All data to date provides confidence that daily PCR testing combined with the isolation and close contact policy that makes the Closed Loop very safe and that there are no infectious participants,” the statement reads.
Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it was not surprising — if not inevitable — to see cases within the Olympic bubble.
“Given the high transferability of the new variant, I’m sure there will be some infections at the Games,” Huang said. “The question is whether those flare-ups will develop into outbreaks in the bubble — or worse, spill out of the bubble and cause outbreaks in the city and beyond.”
Huang added that he was “cautiously optimistic” that China’s zero-covid strategy could succeed, citing “unprecedented strict measures”.
Earlier this month, the Omicron variant was discovered in the Beijing community, prompting authorities to quickly shut down an office building and residential complex. Since then, several Delta cases have also been reported.
Authorities warned of the “double pressure of domestic and imported affairs”, but still maintained a confident tone.
“The overall situation remains under control,” Huang Chun, an official with Beijing’s organizing committee, said at a news conference last week. He added there were no plans to shut down the city or change the coronavirus containment rules for the Winter Olympics.
