Beijing Olympic athletes, team officials testing positive for COVID-19 more than others

The Canadian Olympic Committee also said on Tuesday that three members of the Canadian team in Beijing were in COVID-19 protocols.

Athletes and team officials are testing positive for COVID-19 at much higher rates than other people arriving in China for the Beijing Olympics, organizers said Tuesday.

Figures released by local organizers showed 11 positive tests for COVID-19 among 379 athletes and officials arriving Monday. They have been taken into isolation hotels to limit the spread of the infection and could miss their events.

The positive test rate of 2.9 per cent for athletes and officials compared to 0.66 per cent for Olympic “stakeholders,” a group which includes workers and media, in the same period.

There were 1,059 people in that category.

Over a three-day period from Saturday through Monday, the positivity rate for athletes and officials was 40 per cent higher than other Olympic arrivals.

The rates were confirmed in PCR and other follow-up tests for tens of thousands of people at the Beijing Olympics who will live, work and train in closed-off communities separated from the general public.

The Chinese government is pursuing a zero-tolerance public health strategy.

On Monday, the rate of infection from tests of those already inside the Olympic bubbles was 100 times higher for athletes and officials compared to workers. Five of 3,103 tests from the athletes-officials group were positive compared to only one of more than 60,000 daily tests from “stakeholders.”