YANQING, China – Having been to the Tokyo Summer and Beijing Winter Olympics in a span of half a year, Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino can’t help but notice how both hosts are countering COVID-19 and preventing alarming cases of infections.
So which host is enforcing a sterner countermeasure?
“Beijing,” Tolentino, who stayed a week in Beijing to oversee alpine skier Asa Miller’s preparation for the men’s giant slalom and slalom competitions that are due on Feb. 13 and 16, respectively, said.
Beijing organizers are using a “closed loop” approach during the 17-day Games, one Tolentino described as stricter than Tokyo’s “Playbook.”
“I’m really impressed with the closed loop system, it’s very effective,” Tolentino said. “You break the loop and you get penalized.”
Tokyo’s “Playbook” was a bubble setup but in Beijing, Tolentino said, the loop is a sort of a point-to-point system where athletes, officials, and Games staff move around through a bus route system that’s practically impregnable from the outside and in.
“China is implementing a zero-tolerance policy against COVID-19 and the implementation is very superb,” the congressman from Cavite’s Eighth District said.
“When we were in Tokyo, we can go out [of the village or hotel] and buy a coffee at Starbucks. But here, you can’t do it,” Tolentino said. “Everything is in the hotel or inside the three Olympic Villages. You can buy it there.”
“There’s no loophole, and there’s a big scanner in every entrance where your face will appear on a big screen and verify if you’re okay to get in,” he added.
Around 27,000 volunteers were quartered in hotels for two months and weren’t allowed to go out. The open-loop, Tolentino said, is the people outside the closed-loop and they are not allowed to go inside the Olympic perimeter area.
Stores, hospitals, recreational areas, banks, and restaurants, among others, are inside the loop.
Chef de Mission Bones Floro said it is understandable why the Chinese authorities are very strict.
“We are still in a pandemic. And it is our responsibility to protect ourselves and others in the bubble as well as our gracious hosts in China,” he said.
The Winter Games involve around 60,000 individuals—athletes, officials, the local workforce, volunteers, and journalists. They are tested everyday for COVID-19.
The Beijing organizers reported that there were 353 positive tests so far since operations turned full bloom last Jan. 23.
In the Tokyo Olympics, there were 430 confirmed cases—32 of which were from the Olympic Village—from July 1 up to the closing ceremony on Aug. 4, 2021. A total of 286 were Japanese residents and 144 are from overseas. The largest portion pegged at 236 were contract workers, followed by 109 Games participants and 29 athletes. (POC) – bny
