Olympic organisers have slightly eased coronavirus regulations for the upcoming Beijing Winter Games in response to a debate on when a test should be considered positive.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in a statement on Monday that the Cycle Threshold (CT) value in PCR tests was lowered from China’s level of 40 to 35 for Games participants.
Many other countries have a cut-off of 30.
People are considered more contagious the lower the level is.
The change also reduces fears that athletes, officials and others could test negative at home before departure but positive upon arrival in China.
“The new measures come into effect immediately, and will apply retrospectively,” the IOC said.
The Beijing Games which holds from Feb. 4 to Feb. 20 takes place without any contact to the Chinese population in a closed loop environment.
China has a zero-COVID policy and daily PCR tests are mandatory for everyone accredited for the Games.
Those with a CT of 35 or higher will now be deemed close contacts for seven days and not positive, and be tested twice a day.
Anyone who tests positive are placed in isolation and can return after two negative PCR tests, or after 10 days with one negative PCR test, as long as they are asymptomatic.
They will then be listed as closed contacts, with the duration of this stage now halved from 14 to 7 days.
In addition, those who test positive multiple times could be allowed to leave China for home earlier than a full isolation period.
Chinese organisers had said on Sunday that 72 tests have returned positive from more than 330,000 tests carried out.
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This was done between Jan. 4 and Saturday on international arrivals and within the closed loop.
None of them were athletes though.
