1 non-athlete member of Canadian Olympic delegation in Beijing in COVID-19 protocol
Games advisers see cases falling; 6 Danish men's hockey players test positive
The latest sports news:
- Ex-NHLer Mikkel Boedker among Danish players with virus
- Overall virus numbers not worrying, Olympic medical adviser says
Canada had no athletes, and just one member of its delegation, in COVID-19 protocols on Wednesday, down from three members a day earlier.
The 400-plus Canadian delegation includes athletes, coaches and team staff.
"I can tell you that we do not have any athletes in isolation at the moment," Dr. Mike Wilkinson, the Canadian Olympic Committee's chief medical officer, said at the team's traditional opening news conference on Wednesday night.
"Out of about 450 team members on the ground, we have one person in isolation at the moment and that person is healthy. That person is doing well," Wilkinson added.
The COC said earlier in the day the protocols impacted the person's ability to fulfil their role at the Games.
"We are managing each one on a case-by-case basis and to respect the privacy of the people involved we will not be sharing names at this time," the COC's statement said. "Part of our strategy was to arrive early to allow time for confirmation testing and, if necessary, the Medical Expert Panel process to unfold."
The COC said it would respect an athlete's privacy and not announce their names without consent.
Beijing 2022 organizers announced 32 COVID-19 cases had been detected, 17 of which were inside the closed-loop system and the remaining 15 upon arrival in China.
"At the moment we've seen no signs [of a spread] within the closed loop," said Dr. Brian McCloskey, chief of the Beijing 2022 Medical Expert Panel. "It's early days to look at all the gene sequencing, etc., but at present that's not a problem we're particularly worried about."
Keegan Messing is not with Canada's figure skating team in Beijing. The 30-year-old from Girdwood, Alaska, is still in Vancouver awaiting negative COVID-19 tests that will clear him for travel.
Messing competes in men's singles next week, but also in the team event that starts Friday.
Athletes and delegates who test positive while in China must produce two negative tests 24 hours apart to be released from isolation and protocol.
WATCH | CBC Sports' Devin Heroux, Beijing 2022 doctor discuss COVID-19 protocols:
6 Danish men's hockey players test positive
Denmark's men's hockey team held its first pre-Olympic practice Wednesday without six players after a spate of positive COVID-19 test results upon arriving in China.
The Danish Olympic federation announced forwards Matthias Asperup and Nick Olesen tested positive for the coronavirus and went into isolation. Former NHL forward Mikkel Boedker, veteran defenceman Markus Lauridsen and two taxi squad players also missed practice after testing positive, though the team believed the results to be inaccurate and expected them back on the ice soon.
"Fortunately, it looks like four of them were false positive, we are hoping," longtime NHL centre Frans Nielsen said. "I wouldn't called it 'scared,' but you're always worried about, 'Is there going to be more?'"
Head coach Heinz Ehlers expressed optimism about getting four of the players out of isolation late Wednesday or early Thursday. The National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark said it did not believe any other members of the nation's 62-person delegation would need to be isolated.
Ehlers said everyone on Denmark's men's hockey team tested negative twice within the previous 48 hours before leaving for Beijing. Asperup and Olesen need to produce two negative COVID-19 tests 24 hours apart to be cleared to rejoin the team.
The tournament begins in a week. Denmark plays its first game Feb. 9 against the Czech Republic.
Denmark qualified in men's and women's hockey at the Olympics for the first time.
Olympic advisers see cases falling
With more than 30 new COVID-19 cases being detected daily ahead of the Beijing Olympics, organizers said Wednesday they aren't worried and expect numbers to drop within days.
A total of 32 new cases — 15 in tests of people arriving at the airport and 17 within the Olympic bubbles — were reported by the Beijing organizing committee on Wednesday, two days before the opening ceremony. The average was 31 cases over the past three days.
Athletes and team officials accounted for nine of the latest cases and 23 were "stakeholders," a category that includes workers and media. Athletes testing positive now could miss their events.
Eleven people have been treated at the hospital for a symptom among the 232 positive tests registered since Jan. 23, though "none of those are seriously ill in any way," Olympic medical adviser Brian McCloskey said.
The overall numbers are not worrying for the Olympics, said McCloskey, who is leading the organizers' medical expert panel.
Daily PCR tests are taken from every Olympic athlete, sports official and worker — more than 65,000 tests on Tuesday. All are living separate from the general public in what organizers call a closed-loop community.
China has pursued a zero-tolerance public health policy during the pandemic, which spread from an initial outbreak in the country more than two years ago.
With files from Benjamin Steiner, CBC Sports
