Omicron and Winter Olympics could be on a collision course with China hoping to implement a zero-Covid strategy ahead of the games.
Perhaps it was naive to expect that China's rigid approach to fighting Covid-19 complete with locking down millions of people and using invasive surveillance to keep tabs on citizens would not eventually cause problems for the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics amid an ongoing global pandemic, according to CNN.
Meanwhile, China is battling one of its worst outbreaks of the year in Xi'an, a city 600 miles southwest of Beijing, where 13 million residents are currently on lockdown.
However, the long-term strategy will continue to slow economic growth and potentially stir social unrest. Last week the World Bank cut growth forecasts for China, citing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and poor performance in the property sector.
On the other hand, China Communist Party (CCP) remains very much present at home. The massive security apparatus installed over the years to monitor dissenters and law-breakers, and more recently people in quarantine or lockdowns is second to none. An unrivalled network of at least 567 million CCTV cameras
While China has announced only a handful of Omicron cases so far, its zero-Covid strategy could face serious challenges if the highly contagious variant starts spreading more widely there. This is particularly troubling since Omicron is proving resistant to China's Sinovac booster vaccine.
It is something the International Olympic Committee and national teams need to ask themselves before boarding flights to Beijing. That is, if the flights are even still operating, according to CNN.
( With inputs from ANI )
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