The Asian Games, a major sports competition which was to take place in September in China, have been postponed to an unspecified date, Chinese public television announced on Friday in the midst of an epidemic outbreak.
No official reason has been given, but China is currently facing an upsurge in COVID-19 cases that are affecting several provinces to varying degrees.
The competitions were to be held in Hangzhou (east), less than 200 km southwest of Shanghai, the city by far the most affected by the recent epidemic outbreak and where the population has been confined since the beginning of April.
“The Olympic Council of Asia has announced that the 19th Asian Games, which were originally scheduled to be held (…) from September 10 to 25, 2022, have been postponed,” CCTV said on Chinese social network Weibo.
“The new dates will be announced at a later date,” the television said without mentioning COVID-19.
The organizers had planned to apply a coronavirus prevention plan based on that of the last Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, in February in Beijing, which had been a success in terms of health.
But the recent resurgence of the epidemic had not yet begun. However, the Chinese authorities are concerned to avoid any contamination within the population and have applied a zero COVID strategy since 2020.
This consists of several measures: confinement as soon as a few cases appear, separation of people who test positive from the rest of the population, quarantine on arrival in the territory or even tracing of movements.
Hangzhou has 12 million inhabitants. It was to be the third Chinese city to host the Asian Games, after Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010.
Some tests were to be organized in other cities of the same province, where a few dozen positive cases have been identified in recent days.