Beijing 2022 organisers cancel plans to sell tickets due to COVID-19

Photo: A general view the Birds Nest stadium, the venue for opening and closing ceremonies for the 2022 Winter Olympics at Beijing Olympic Tower on January 16, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

By George Aluo

Organisers of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics have declared that tickets won’t be sold for the games.

AIPS reports that this much was confirmed by a final version of the spectators policy released early this week.

The games organizers hinged their decision on the current “grave and complicated” COVID-19 pandemic situation.

On Saturday, the Chinese capital, Beijing, reported its first locally transmitted case of Omicron coronavirus variant, which is being suspected to have come from an international mail, with the Games scheduled to commence in less than three weeks. Laboratory testing found “mutations specific to the Omicron variant” in the person, according to an official at the city’s disease control authority. Beijing then tightened its COVID-19 entry rules on Sunday.

The Beijing 2022 organisers have decided they will “invite groups of spectators to be present on site during the Games” and these spectators must abide by the COVID-19 countermeasures before, during and after each event in order to ensure a safe environment.

In the pandemic prevention and control policy principles for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 released on September 29, 2021, it was stated that tickets would be sold only to spectators residing in China’s mainland who meet the requirements of COVID-19 countermeasures, but that plan has now been scrapped.

The Olympic Winter Games will take place from February 4 – 20, 2022, and the Paralympic Winter Games are scheduled for March 4-13, 2022.