Optimization of COVID-19 prevention and control measures during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics: a model-based study

Abstract

Background The continuous mutation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has made the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic complicated to predict and posed a severe challenge to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics held in February and March 2022. Methods During the preparations for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, we established a dynamic model with pulse detection and isolation effect to evaluate the effect of epidemic prevention and control measures such as entry policies, contact reduction, nucleic acid testing, tracking, isolation, and health monitoring in a closed-loop management environment, by simulating the transmission dynamics in assumed scenarios. We also compared the importance of each parameter in the combination of intervention measures through sensitivity analysis. Results At the assumed baseline levels, the peak of the epidemic reached on the 57th day. During the simulation period (100 days), 13,382 people infected COVID-19. The mean and peak values of hospitalized cases were 2650 and 6746, respectively. The simulation and sensitivity analysis showed that: (1) the most important measures to stop COVID-19 transmission during the event were daily nucleic acid testing, reducing contact among people, and daily health monitoring, with cumulative infections at 0.04%, 0.14%, and 14.92% of baseline levels, respectively (2) strictly implementing the entry policy and reducing the number of cases entering the closed-loop system could delay the peak of the epidemic by 9 days and provide time for medical resources to be mobilized; (3) the risk of environmental transmission was low. Conclusions Comprehensive measures under certain scenarios such as reducing contact, nucleic acid testing, health monitoring, and timely tracking and isolation could effectively prevent virus transmission. Our research results provided an important reference for formulating prevention and control measures during the Winter Olympics, and no epidemic spread in the closed-loop during the games indirectly proved the rationality of our research results. Graphical Abstract

Risks, Epidemics, and Prevention Measures of Infectious Diseases in Major Sports Events: Scoping Review

“…During the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, the positive rates of COVID-19 tests were 0.10% and 0.03% for games-related people arriving at airports and people living in the Tokyo 2020 bubble, respectively, including 24 of 11,476 Olympic athletes and 13 of 4303 Paralympic athletes who tested positive [ 30 ]. As for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, 284 of the 16,092 games-related people tested positive at the airport and 179 people tested positive in the closed loop with no cluster epidemic [ 31 ] (see Tables S1 and S2 of Multimedia Appendix 1 ).…”

“…Currently, we are nearly 3 years into the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in many sports events having been suspended, postponed, or scaled back, which are now being gradually resumed. Based on the experiences of the Tokyo and Beijing Olympic Games, strict management measures, represented by a bubble scheme, closed-loop management, and frequent testing, could effectively prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the Olympic Village and the communities of host cities during the sports events [ 30 , 31 ]. However, international spectators were not allowed to attend the previous two Olympic Games.…”

The rapid and efficient strategy for SARS-CoV-2 Omicron transmission control: analysis of outbreaks at the city level

“…Blocking continuous community transmission can prevent large-scale epidemics, and a comprehensive strategy can promptly and precisely detect and control new outbreaks to halt the transmission of COVID-19 across communities, prevent large-scale viral flare-ups, and achieve a balance between virus control and socioeconomic development [42,43]. Detecting and identifying the early infection is crucial for interrupting epidemic.…”

“…Detecting and identifying the early infection is crucial for interrupting epidemic. Nucleic acid testing presents the opportunity to identify the number of infectious individuals in the early stages [43,44], it was regularly performed for high-risk groups, including patients with COVID-19-related symptoms, the close contacts of someone with confirmed infection, as well as the contacts of close contacts, occupationalrisk individuals, and personnel in key institutions [35,44]. In addition, antigen detection could help to identify infected people and prevent community communication before nucleic acid testing were conducted in a large crowd.…”

“…Emerging pathogens with high transmissibility have the characteristic of biological invasion, where the pathogen can rapidly replicate and spread under the synergism of biological features and socioeconomic factors [25,49]. An intelligent early warning platform for infectious diseases based on multi-point trigger mechanisms and multichannel surveillance mechanisms can improve the monitoring capacity and control the outbreak of infectious diseases at the early stages [43], the optimised surveillance system have capable of providing early and robust data on a new pathogen. Infectious diseases caused by highly transmissible pathogens can be effectively intercepted by fast and accurate response actions by crossdisciplinary approach and multidisciplinary, multisectoral, and multiprofessional collaboration [50].…”