Six German athletes test positive for COVID-19 on arrival in Beijing

 

BEIJING: Six German athletes who arrived in Beijing on Thursday (Feb 3) have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total to seven cases among them so far, the team said.

"Three teams of Team D (Germany) are affected," the Germany team said in a statement on Friday, without naming the people or sports teams affected.

"The team members are without symptoms and have been initially separated from the rest of the squad. There will be further PCR tests to confirm the results. The process from here on will be decided by the results."

The other 78 athletes who arrived on the same flight had tested negative.

German figure skater Nolan Seegert has already tested positive for COVID-19 twice in Beijing and is isolating in a hotel, forcing Germany to drop out of the figure skating pairs in the team event.

A number of athletes have already been ruled out of the Feb 4 to Feb 20 Games after testing positive on arrival at the airport.

Organisers have said so far 287 Games participants, which includes athletes, coaches, officials, media and organising staff, had tested positive in Beijing.

A total of 610,000 tests had been conducted until Thursday.

Athletes who want to return to competition and training will need to be without symptoms and provide two negative tests 24 hours apart to be released from isolation.