How to build a health safeguard mechanism for China's 14th National Games

XI'AN, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Strict and efficient epidemic prevention and control measures have been applied to the ongoing 14th National Games in here while fans can still be allowed into the stadium to cheer for athletes at the largest and highest-level multi-sport event held in China since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The women's volleyball tournament is held in the Ao Xiang Gym of Northwestern Polytechnical University. As the audience are cheering and applauding, athletes once again experienced a raucous atmosphere they had been missing in competitions.

"I haven't got such a feeling for a long time! We hope fans can cheer for us at the gym, but it did not happen in the past months. Now, it gives us a thrill," said Gong Xiangyu, a member of Jiangsu team and one of the national team's 'top guns' at Tokyo Olympics.

To host a "simple, safe and splendid" sport event and enable the audience to enjoy the charm of sports safely, hos Shaanxi Province works hard to improve a string of anti-virus measures including remote health monitoring, people-specific approaches and closed-loop management.

The audience need to complete COVID-19 vaccination 14 days before they watch the event and provide negative nucleic acid tests within 72 hours prior to the event.

Athletes, technical officers, correspondents and other participants are under closed-loop management and receive nucleic acid tests every 48 hours. During the Games, they need to take shuttle buses to stadiums on preset routes.

Au Chi Kun, head of the Macao track and field team believes such measure are necessary for the National Games, "Our athletes understand and strictly follow the requirements," he said.

The organizers set up nucleic acid test stations in the media village and Athletes' Village in order for athletes, technical officials and journalists to get tests easily, according to Yang Fan, director of the epidemic prevention and control group of the National Games Village.

Besides National Games participants, Shaanxi also carries out routine nucleic acid tests among key groups and has accelerated COVID-19 vaccination.