- The Beijing Winter Olympics are operating under extremely strict 'closed-loop' COVID-19 regulations.
- Among the measures in place are the use of robot chefs and permanent temperature monitoring.
Beijing is welcoming an estimated 11,000 people from around the world for the 2022 Winter Olympics, which begin on Friday, February 4.
And in an ambitious attempt to completely prevent the spread of COVID-19, the games are being hosted inside an extremely strict "closed-loop" bubble.
Similar to the bubble the NBA designed for the final stages of its 2019/20 season, the city is keeping athletes, staff, spectators, and the media in huge separate isolation bubbles which incorporate not only housing and event locations but also transport links — all completely separate from the wider Chinese population.
In the two weeks prior to arrival, those joining the bubbles must use an app to upload their body temperature and answer questions about their health status daily, reports CNN.
Should they then be considered safe to fly, attendees then must then travel into China on charter flights and present clear COVID-19 tests before and after landing.
Once inside the bubble, daily testing is also conducted and everybody is expected to wear masks at all times in public areas while not competing.
Maintaining the bubble is likely to be particularly tricky given the three disparate zones in which the games are being held: downtown Beijing, the suburban Yanqing district, and Zhangjiakou, a city in neighboring Hebei province, around 100 miles from the capital as the crow flies.
Chinese authorities are so keen that the bubble must not be breached that a number of extremely strict measures are being put in place, including warnings to residents not to offer help if an Olympic vehicle is involved in a road traffic accident.
"In case of traffic accidents with special vehicles for the Winter Olympics, please pay attention to maintaining a safe distance," Beijing's traffic authorities said in a statement on social media site Weibo earlier this month, according to Inside The Games.
"Do not make contact with vehicles or personnel in them and wait for professionals to arrive at the scene."
Inside the bubble other measures include some staff having to wear all-day armpit thermometers, which will sound an alarm should their temperature exceed 37.3 degrees.
In some areas, food and drinks are prepared and served by robots in "smart canteens."
Other measures in the closed-loop bubble include tight regulation of human movement. One reporter in the bubble noted for SupChina that so strict are restrictions on movement that she was made to wait 30 minutes to take a shuttle bus around 200 meters down the street, rather than walk for a couple of minutes.
Testing positive involves tight, lengthy quarantine protocols
While the measures to stop COVID spreading are severe, so are the consequences for those who test positive.
According to The Guardian, anybody who tests positive goes to an isolation centre for a minimum 10-day quarantine, or into hospital if they are sick.
People found to be close contacts — classed as anyone who happens to be in the same general area at about the same time as a person who is found to be infected — and whose jobs can be done by someone else must go to the isolation centre for at least three weeks, or leave China within two days of testing negative.
Close contacts who are competitors, or whose jobs are critical, must isolate in their room, travel alone, train in their room or an isolated space, and be tested every day.
Despite such strict rules, however, as of Monday, China had already detected 119 COVID-19 cases among athletes and personnel involved in the games, according to Sportsmail.
Among those to test positive is Russian biathlete Valeria Vasnetsova, who took to social media to share the news.
"Unfortunately, my Olympic dream will remain just a dream," she said. "Maybe one day I will find the strength to rise again but it will be a completely different story."
International Olympic Committee member Emma Terho also tested positive and has been in isolation since the weekend.
"Even though this is not the start I envisaged, I was happy to see the protocols that Beijing 2022 has put in place are working well," Terho, a former ice hockey player for Finland, said on Instagram.