Winter Olympics: Six German athletes test positive for Covid-19 on arrival in Beijing

Germany’s Winter Olympics team said that it had been hit by an outbreak of Covid-19 on arrival in Beijing, with six confirmed cases.

“Three teams of Team D (Germany) are affected,” the German team said in a statement on Friday, without naming the people or sports teams affected. Those affected are all symptom-free and have been isolated from the rest of the team.

“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 isolated in a hotel, forcing Germany to drop out of the figure skating pairs in the team event.

Organizers have said so far 287 Games participants, which includes athletes, coaches, officials, media and organizing 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.