Beijing Winter Olympics will detect Covid-19 in the air: organizers

Beijing, Nov 18 (EFE).- A group of Chinese experts developed an aerosol virus detection system that activates alarms if coronavirus particles are found in a room that will be used in the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, organizers said Thursday.

In a press conference, the Organizing Committee said it would guarantee the games’ safety with technological advances that will also be applied to disinfection, including nanofiltration techniques for water treatment and venue cooling systems.

The Wukesong Center, which will host the ice hockey competitions, robots with disinfectant sprays will be used.

The objective of Beijing is to prevent the games, which will begin on Feb. 4, from being the origin of a virus outbreak in China, whose authorities have made the zero tolerance policy against Covid-19 one of their main prides.

Despite strict prevention measures, three Covid-19 cases have been detected among athletes in the Chinese capital to participate in test events and the Olympics.

Beijing would become the first city in history to host some summer and winter games, although the city will only host the ice events in 2022, while snow competitions will take place in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, north of the capital.

Yanqing and Zhangjiakou only receive about 20 centimeters of snow a year, which will make it necessary to use about 186,000 cubic meters of water to manufacture it artificially.

In response to fears that such consumption could affect the water supply from Beijing, as environmental organization Greenpeace said two years ago, authorities have taken measures to prevent groundwater levels in the area from falling.

The committee said the “most efficient” snow cannons in the world will be used, which will only turn on when “high precision” meteorological systems detect a rise in temperature.

Beijing’s will be the third Olympics that use 5G technology to guarantee communications, since many interviews will have to be held online because those arriving from abroad will remain in “bubbles” that will keep them isolated from the rest of China.

Acloud interview platform or remote-controlled camera system has been devised to reduce interactions between athletes and journalists.

In recent weeks, foreign correspondents in China had denounced the organization’s “lack of transparency and clarity,” claiming they had been “constantly hampered” in covering preparations. EFE

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