Tickets for the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Beijing wont be sold to the general public due to fears around the pandemic.
Instead, authorities will select a small group of people who can go, and distribute tickets to them instead.
Groups of spectators will be invited on site throughout the Games and will be required to strictly comply with Covid-19 prevention and control requirements.
The International Olympic Committee says those who are chosen will be residents from China’s mainland who have the required COVID-19 countermeasures.
“In terms of the grim and complex situation of epidemic prevention and control [and] in order to protect the health and safety of Olympic personnel and spectators, we have decided to change the original plan of public ticket sales,” the committee said.
The announcement comes after Beijing reported its first case of the highly transmissible Omicron variant on January 15.
The Beijing Winter Olympics are set to begin on February 4, before the Paralympic Winter Games start March 4.
Organizers intend to hold Beijing 2022 in a closed loop system which will only be accessible for Games participants — a plan that has remained in place amid the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.
