China warned Tuesday that the fast-spreading Omicron Covid-19 variant would cause challenges in hosting next February's Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Although China has largely quashed the coronavirus within its borders through travel restrictions and snap lockdowns, recurrent domestic outbreaks linked to the Delta variant have put the authorities on high alert.

"I think it will definitely lead to challenges linked to prevention and control," foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, adding that Beijing "appreciates the efforts by South Africa in offering timely information" on the variant.

"But China has a lot of experience in responding to Covid-19," Zhao added. "I firmly believe the Winter Olympics will be conducted smoothly."

China is determined to pull off a smooth Olympic Games unmarred by Covid-19, in what would be a propaganda win for Beijing's zero-tolerance Covid strategy.

Thousands of athletes, media and participants arriving from overseas are required to enter a strict "closed-loop" bubble.

Testing, vaccinations and the bubble are "among the vital elements that will enable the Games to take place safely," said an International Olympic Committee spokesperson.

"The latest developments regarding Covid-19 reinforce the importance of all the measures... which can be further adapted if necessary."

Organisers last month admitted that the virus would be the "biggest challenge" in hosting the Games.

But health authorities said they had the means to cope with the new variant.

"China has already done a good job of technical preparations" for the Omicron variant, said Xu Wenbo, head of the virus control institute at China's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We have many lines of technical research, including preliminary technical research into deactivated vaccines, protein-based vaccines and vector-based vaccines," he said at a separate Tuesday briefing.

More than 1.1 billion people have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus as of Monday, according to health authorities.

Related Links
Epidemics on Earth - Bird Flu, HIV/AIDS, Ebola

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Moderna boss says vaccines likely no match for Omicron: FT
Hong Kong (AFP) Nov 30, 2021
Existing Covid-19 jabs will struggle against the Omicron variant and it will take months to develop a new shot that works, the head of US vaccine manufacturer Moderna has told the Financial Times. Stephane Bancel told the newspaper in an interview published Tuesday that data would be available on the effectiveness of current vaccines in the next two weeks but scientists were not optimistic. "All the scientists I've talked to ... are like 'this is not going to be good'," he told the newspaper. ... read more