Beijing to offer Olympic tickets to 'selected' spectators

A woman wearing a face mask to protect against COVID-19 stands next to figures of the Winter Paralympic mascot Shuey Rhon Rhon left, and Winter Olympic mascot Bing Dwen Dwen on a pedestrian shopping street in Beijing, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022. As the Beijing Winter Olympics loom, the Chinese capital is stepping measures to keep the coronavirus at bay including suspending most access to Tianjin, an adjacent major city which is dealing with an outbreak of the highly contagious omicron variant. These outbreaks are posing a test to its "zero-tolerance" COVID-19 policy and its ability to successfully host the Winter Olympics. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) (Mark Schiefelbein, Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

BEIJING – Only “selected” spectators will be permitted at next month's Beijing Olympics because of the coronavirus pandemic, organizers said Monday.

Beijing had already announced that no fans from outside the country would be permitted at the events, and had not offered tickets to the general public.

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Monday’s announcement posted on the organizing committee’s website confirmed expectations that the Winter Games would have few onlookers at the venues, under even more strict conditions than imposed during last year’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

China has largely avoided major virus outbreaks with a regimen of lockdowns, mass testing for COVID-19 and travel restrictions, although it continues to fight surges in several cities, including the port of Tianjin, about an hour from Beijing. The capital itself confirmed over the weekend that a 26-year-old woman had contracted the omicron variant of the virus and has tested more than 13,000 people in search of cases of cross transmission.

In its statement, the organizing committee said its measures were intended to “create a pleasant environment for the holding of the Games."

“Given the difficult and complicated work of controlling the epidemic, and to protect the health and safety of those involved with the Games, the original plan of offering tickets to the general public has been altered toward spectators from selected groups," the statement said.

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