China had already barred foreign spectators from attending the Winter Games that begin in Beijing on Feb. 4. On Monday, it announced that most Chinese people won’t be able to attend either.
Citing the evolving threat from the coronavirus pandemic, the Beijing 2022 organizing committee announced that it was ending public ticket sales “to ensure the safety of all participants and spectators.”
The decision came less than two days after health authorities reported Beijing’s first case of the Omicron variant and ordered an immediate lockdown and mass testing in one of the capital’s neighborhoods. The outbreak, though so far limited, pierced the extraordinary efforts to isolate Beijing, including a ban on travel into the city.
By last week, more than 20 million people were confined in their homes in cities around China, including Tianjin, a port city just 70 miles east of Beijing.
NYT