New Delhi, May 06, 2022: The Asian Games, which were to be held from September 10-25 in Hangzhou, have been postponed due to the pandemic, China’s state media reported on Friday. No alternative date has been announced so far.
The decision comes at a time when China, where the virus emerged in late 2019, is experiencing its biggest Covid-19 outbreak. The country is battling a record number of daily cases in Shanghai, which has been under lockdown for more than a month. Shanghai is just a short train ride away from Hangzhou, where mass Covid-19 testing began last week to keep a check on rising omicron cases. In the last few days, China’s capital Beijing, too, began tightening its Covid curbs.
Till as recently as last week, the organisers and the Olympic Council of Asia had insisted that the Asian Games, second only to the Olympics in terms of size, will go ahead as scheduled in September. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Narinder Batra had earlier this week said they received an intimation continental body, confirming the same.
The organisers had put in place plans for a strict bio-bubble, similar to the one enforced during the Beijing Winter Olympics earlier this year, and ‘successfully rehearsed’ it last week during a test event for the Asian Games.
