The Japanese Olympic Committee on Wednesday announced the first positive coronavirus case among Japanese athletes attending the Beijing Games.
The JOC said a "skier" has tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday in Beijing after testing negative before departing for China. The athlete's name has not been released due to the JOC's privacy policy, although it was confirmed the person is asymptomatic.
The positive test was one of 32 reported by the organizing committee on Wednesday, 15 of which were detected in airport screening and another 17 from among those who had already entered the Beijing Olympic "bubble." Nine of the positive results were among athletes and team staff, six of those inside the bubble.
The JOC said it will "follow the instructions of the games organizing committee and will take necessary measures," in relation to the athlete.
The second edition of the coronavirus measures "playbook" stipulates that asymptomatic athletes must quarantine in a dedicated facility, where they will take PCR tests twice a day 12 hours apart, and will be cleared to leave after testing negative at least twice in a row over a period of 24 hours.
The sport in which the athlete competes is not yet known.
"The vast majority of people who are positive are well, a lot are asymptomatic. There have been 11 people hospitalized because they have a symptom. None of those are seriously ill in any way," Brian McCloskey, the head of the games' medical expert panel told a press conference.
The Beijing Games are being held on Feb. 4-20 under strict coronavirus rules with athletes, team staff, media and workers restricted to a bubble that keeps them isolated from the Chinese public.
Games organizers have implemented a stringent testing regime in hopes of keeping the games virus-free, in line with China's zero-COVID policy.
