SHOW MUST GO ON

China Insists Omicron Won’t Stop 2022 Winter Olympics

Despite currently blocking most foreign travelers from entering the country, China says the upcoming Beijing Games will go forward “smoothly.”

Variants be damned. China plans to go forward with the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics despite the global threat of the super-mutated coronavirus variant Omicron. Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Tuesday that China would make sure all athletes and support personnel would be in a “closed loop” and tested daily for COVID-19 leading up to and during the Beijing Games, scheduled from Feb. 4 to 20. “I believe it will definitely pose some challenge to our efforts to prevent and control the virus, but as China has experience in preventing and controlling the coronavirus, I fully believe that China will be able to host the Winter Olympics as scheduled, smoothly and successfully,” he said. China, where COVID-19 originally broke out, has adopted a zero-tolerance approach to the pandemic, adopting the strictest containment measures anywhere in the world.