A construction worker walks past the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games logo on a street in Beijing on December 11, 2021.
JADE GAO / AFP via Getty Images
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JADE GAO / AFP via Getty Images
A construction worker walks past the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games logo on a street in Beijing on December 11, 2021.
JADE GAO / AFP via Getty Images
No tickets have been sold for the upcoming Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing due to the “severe and complicated situation of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Instead, organizers announced Monday that they will be inviting groups of spectators to attend the games live.
“The organizers expect that these spectators will strictly adhere to COVID-19 countermeasures before, during and after each event as a prerequisite for holding the Olympics in a safe and healthy manner.” Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee said in a statement.
Former International Olympic Committee said they will only sell tickets to audiences living in mainland China meets certain COVID-19 safety requirements.
Fan not allowed in the stands during the Summer Olympics in Tokyo last year.
Winter games will not require athletes to be immunized against COVID-19, but those who have not been vaccinated will have to quarantine for 21 days when they arrive in Beijing. IOC also implement other policies to prevent the spread of COVID during competition, such as a “closed-loop” system that limits participants to certain Olympic-related areas and other permitted venues, and isolating them from the Chinese public.
The Winter Olympic Games will take place from February 4 to 20, and the Winter Paralympics will take place from March 4 to 13.
China has been working to quell a series of COVID outbreaks in the weeks leading up to the game, which recently plunged more than 20 million people around the country into some form of lockdown, Associated Press reported. Last week, Beijing reported its first locally transmitted omicron variant case, according to Media reports.
