The scenes in the 14-million city of Tianjin are familiar.

Long-term residents waiting to be tested.

The districts where the infection was first discovered are closed and no one is allowed in or out.

At Beijing Railway Station, all trains to and from Tianjin are canceled, normally a 30-minute commute to an estimated 100,000 people a day. 

China has zero tolerance for the spread of corona and all immigrants in the country have been quarantined between 14 and 22 days, which has also meant a low spread of the country.

However, the omicron variant seems difficult to stop and Tianjin's infection control officer, Zhang Ying, said at the weekend that it is suspected that the binge intoxication has spread in the city for some time.

As neither of the first two cases confirmed, a 10-year-old girl and a 29-year-old teacher, have left Tianjin recently.

No tightening of Olympic restrictions

There is now great concern that the spread of infection will pick up speed in the capital just in time for the Olympics when thousands of athletes, leaders and journalists come to China.

But there is still no reason to tighten the restrictions on the competitions, the organizers said at a press conference today.

Everyone who comes to the Olympics goes straight into the Olympic bubble without contact with the community outside.

Once inside the bubble, everyone will be coronate tested once a day, and if the test is positive, you will be immediately moved to isolation, if you have symptoms in hospital.

You must then stay there until you can show two negative corona samples at 24 hour intervals.

Should the spread of infection take such a speed inside the bubble that it threatens the competitions, you are prepared to change the program and ultimately cancel the competitions.  

The Olympics is a prestigious project 

The pressure to carry out the Olympics is great.

Partly because China is proud of its superior corona handling where few have been infected and died, and partly because Beijing will be the first city in the world to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics.

China must show that it is now a rich country that also masters winter sports, says Wang Yiwei, professor of international relations at Renmin University to SVT.

So expect that the Olympic competitions will be carried out, albeit without an audience in the stands and perhaps without many of the pre-favorites.