Wect of China’s strict regulations for the evaluation of corona tests, the members of the German Olympic team are called upon to strictly reduce social contacts and, if possible, even cancel competitions. German Olympic doctor Bernd Wolfarth said on Tuesday that if athletes were to test positive and would not be able to enter the country because of this positive test, a certain distortion of competition could arise.
In an email on Tuesday, delegation leaders Dirk Schimmelpfennig and Wolfarth urged “all members of Team D, including ourselves, to check our daily routines for risks again in the remaining days before departure to Beijing and, if necessary, to reduce contacts even further” . In some special cases, athletes, such as cross-country skiing, “decided, on medical advice, not to compete”. The Presidium of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) decided to adjust the nomination criteria accordingly: “Special times here also require special care.” The German Olympic team consists of 150 athletes and 170 coaches and supervisors. The winter games start on February 4th. The first members of the German team will fly to Beijing on January 21.
Athletes and supervisors will be denied entry to China and entry into the Olympic bubble if they cannot prove a full vaccination and two negative PCR tests not older than 72 hours before departure. They have to undergo another PCR test on arrival at the airport. They will then be tested daily. In all of these analyzes, the Chinese believe that the Ct value must be at least 40 in order to avoid hospitalization or, if there are no symptoms of the disease, the ordinance of quarantine. Such a risk of endangering participation in the Olympics is possible, according to Wolfarth, head of sports medicine at the Berlin Charité, up to fourteen days after surviving a corona infection. From his point of view, those affected no longer pose a risk of infection. In theory, athletes are also allowed to travel to Beijing unvaccinated; the quarantine of 21 days required for this is likely to be an exclusion criterion. According to Wolfarth, all members of the German team are fully vaccinated, and a very high proportion are boosted.
“Great confidence in the process”
European and North American associations have apparently protested against the high Ct limit of 40 set by the Chinese. In Germany, the Robert Koch Institute specifies a limit value of 30, after which there should no longer be any risk of infection; the World Health Organization names 37. Wolfarth said on Tuesday in a video conference of the Institute for Applied Training Science Leipzig (IAT) that the establishment of a Medical Expert Panel by the IOC was the right way to ensure a sense of proportion when assessing individual cases. It is possible that a recovered athlete will test negative twice, but weakly positive the third time. In such a case, the German team would claim a re-test at the games. The high limit is not a medical, but a political decision.
In addition, the values fluctuated depending on the analysis machines. At the weekend, the Alpine Director of the German Ski Association (DSV), Wolfgang Maier, criticized: “You will be rated as positive if you are no longer infectious. Personally, I don’t think it’s okay that the international associations are not making a clear demand. ”The door and gate are open to arbitrariness, he said on“ Deutschlandfunk ”:“ As an athlete, you never know whether you will leave tomorrow Competition will be withdrawn. ”Wolfarth reported that of the one million tests at the Tokyo Summer Games last year, only 320 were positive; 120 involved athletes and supervisors, 200 Japanese volunteers and workers. These very few cases, he and Schimmelpfennig write, were resolved with close follow-up tests and good communication with the help of the IOC, “so that we also have a high level of confidence in the analogous procedure in Beijing with a responsible, international group of experts (MEP). Carelessly and for no reason, there will be no restrictions for athletes in training and competition in Beijing either. “
Germany’s Olympic team includes fifteen doctors and three sports psychologists. These should not only be responsible for the athletes’ focus on the competitions – a difficulty in Tokyo according to the survey – but also for the care in isolation. Anyone who stands out as a contact person for infected people should move to a single room and eat alone, but can, as long as the tests remain negative, train and take part in competitions.
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