Beijing changes Covid-19 rules for Winter Olympics (Photo: IANS)
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The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games Organizing Committee (BOCOG) and the Chinese authorities have adjusted the Games&#39; COVID-19 rules, a move that means fewer athletes are likely to be tripped up by positive tests.</p>
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The organizing committee has decided to adjust the criteria for determining the nucleic acid test results, the IOC said in a statement. Under the new measures, only those with a PCR result that shows a Cycle Threshold (CT) of less than 35 will be considered COVID-19 positive, instead of the original 40. &quot;The COVID-19 countermeasures for the Olympic Games Beijing 2022 have been refined by the Organising Committee and the Chinese authorities, in consultation with medical experts and the International Olympic Committee (IOC),&quot; the IOC said.</p>
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The changes &quot;have been developed in order to further adapt to the reality of the current environment and support the Games participants.&quot;<br />
According to the IOC, the participants with a PCR result with a CT less than 35 will undergo isolation, but can be released if they are not displaying any COVID-19 symptoms and their PCR results are negative during the previous three consecutive days.</p>
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&quot;Once rejoining the closed-loop, each person will be managed as a close contact. Should the participant&#39;s PCR results in the following days have a CT value of less than 35, they will not be returned to isolation and will continue to be managed as a close contact,&quot; the IOC release added.</p>
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Beijing Winter Olympics reported the first case of COVID-19 among national team members that entered China on Sunday.</p>
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The organizing committee said on Monday that the case was identified from PCR tests of 529 Olympic-related people at an airport in Beijing the previous day, NHK World reported.</p>
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The committee also revealed that three people who were not members of a team also tested positive at the airport.</p>
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The committee said that more than 38,000 tests were conducted on Sunday inside the so-called bubble separating Games-related personnel from the public. Two infections were confirmed from among those tests, the report added.</p>
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From January 4 through Sunday, 43 coronavirus cases were found at the airport and 35 inside the Olympics bubble. The organizing committee announced that a total of 72 confirmed positive tests for COVID-19 have been reported related to the games between January 4 and 22.</p>
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The number of cases reflects that the &quot;Zero-COVID policy&quot; of China has failed to contain the virus.</p>
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