The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games denied rumors that Beijing will be locked down during the games, saying the COVID-19 prevention policies will be adjusted if a large-scale outbreak occurs during the closed loop operation of the event. 

Huang Chun, a deputy director general of the Pandemic Prevention and Control Office of the Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee, said that locking Beijing down during the event is off the table now. 

Omicron is spreading fast globally and was detected in some Chinese cities lately, said Huang, noting that the committee has rolled out COVID-19 policies, and the closed loop operation since January 4 has been working smoothly. The overall situation is under control.

Experts, medical teams of the event are closely watching the viral spreading and continuously evaluating the situation, Huang noted.

He said that unless there's a large, systematic outbreak during the event, there's no need to adjust the current COVID-19 prevention policies. 

Yet there is room of flexibility of changing policies, said Huang, noting that at the current stage, locking down Beijing is not an option. 

As the Winter Olympics are only three weeks away and China is now facing waves of new COVID-19 outbreaks, rumors about locking down Beijing are also spreading.

Over the weekend, there were rumors that several Spanish athletes broke COVID-19 prevention rules, toured Beijing's Sanlitun area and caused infections. 

Beijing police said the story was false and detained 39-year-old Chen, the rumormonger. 

Global Times