BEIJING: More than 30 athletes at the Beijing Olympics are in isolation facilities after testing positive for the coronavirus, organizers said Tuesday. The average stay in isolation is seven days.
“We will allow as many people out of isolation as we can, but only as many as we can do safely,” said Brian McCloskey, chairman of the expert medical panel for the Beijing Games. He said 50 athletes have been discharged and the vast majority of athletes in isolation are well and do not require any medical treatment.
The disclosure that 32 athletes are in isolation facilities came after complaints by athletes and teams about inedible food, dirty rooms and a lack of training equipment and Internet access. Organizers have acknowledged that isolation is already a difficult situation for athletes — who face the possibility of missing competitions after years of training — and said they were working to quickly address any problems.
To prevent the spread of COVID-19, Beijing organizers are requiring everyone in the so-called Olympic bubble to take daily PCR lab tests. Those who are confirmed positive are taken to an isolation facility until they’re cleared for discharge with negative tests. People who keep testing positive can also request a review by a medical panel.
McCloskey noted that people who were infected can continue testing positive intermittently for a long time, even if they’re not contagious. But he said previously infected people might also be testing positive because they were re-infected, and are able to spread the virus.
“The challenge is to distinguish the two,” he said.
Organizers said they expect the number of positive cases to decline as new arrivals into the Olympic bubble taper off, since screening procedures are intended to catch the virus early and prevent it from spreading.
McCloskey noted that everyone in the bubble is being tested and that nearly everyone has been vaccinated.
“I think your chance of picking up COVID in the closed loop is less than anywhere else in the world,” he said.
So far, there have been 393 positive cases inside the Olympic bubble. In addition to athletes, the figure includes news media, team officials and others inside the bubble. More than 12,800 people have arrived from outside China for the Olympics.
Olympic organizers: 32 athletes in isolation for COVID-19
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Olympic organizers: 32 athletes in isolation for COVID-19
- Beijing organizers are requiring everyone in the so-called Olympic bubble to take daily PCR lab tests
Djokovic edges Kovacevic to reach Indian Wells last 16
- With five Indian Wells titles Djokovic is tied for the record with Swiss great Roger Federer
INDIAN WELLS, United States: Novak Djokovic clawed out a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 victory over 72nd-ranked American Aleksandar Kovacevic on Monday to reach the fourth round at Indian Wells for the first time since 2017.
Djokovic, playing his first tournament since falling to Carlos Alcaraz in the Australian Open final, had all he could handle from the 27-year-old New Yorker, who peppered the Serb superstar with 16 aces.
Djokovic made an early break stand up to take the first set, but Kovacevic had found his groove and rolled through the second against a clearly frustrated Djokovic.
Djokovic regrouped in the third — finally finding the break he needed in the final game.
“I knew coming into the match that if he serves well and if he picks his spot in the box it’s going to be tough to break him,” Djokovic said.
“I wasn’t maybe feeling my rhythm on that return very well today, but he was just making my life very difficult, returning the serve.
“He was just acing me all over, getting a lot of free points.
“Today was really anybody’s game until the last couple of points. That last game in the third where he missed some first serves, gave me looks on the second and I used it. That’s pretty much it.”
With five Indian Wells titles Djokovic is tied for the record with Swiss great Roger Federer.
But the Serbian superstar hasn’t made it to the quarter-finals in the California desert since his last title run in 2016 and now he’s had to come through a pair of three-setters to return to the last 16.
He’ll face defending champion Jack Draper for a place in the quarter-finals after the Briton beat Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo 6-1, 7-5.
Draper’s victory here last year — featuring a semifinal win over Carlos Alcaraz — launched his rise to fourth in the world.
But he then missed the better part of six months with an arm injury and arrived in California ranked 14th, his win over Cerundolo marking the first time since June that he’s posted back-to-back ATP victories.
Cerundolo served for the second set at 5-4, but a few mistakes gave Draper an opening and the Briton broke back, saving a pair of break points in the next game before finishing it off on Cerundolo’s serve.
A pair of top-10 seeds were sent packing as Britain’s Cameron Norrie ousted eighth-ranked Australian Alex de Minaur 6-4, 6-4 and Aussie qualifier Rinki Hijikata 10th-ranked Alexander Bublik 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
Hijikata, ranked 117th in the world, claimed his first win over a top-10 player to advance to a meeting with Norrie.
Alcaraz, riding a 13-0 match winning streak as he chases a third Indian Wells title, headlined the night session, taking on France’s Arthur Rinderknech.
The 22-year-old Spaniard’s Australian Open triumph made him the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam, and he followed up with a title in Doha in February.
Now Alcaraz is aiming to return to the winner’s circle in Indian Wells, where his bid for a third straight title last year was derailed by Draper in the semifinals.
