Beijing Winter Olympics reported the first case of COVID-19 among national team members that entered China on Sunday. The organizing committee said on Monday that the case was identified from PCR tests of 529 Olympic-related people at an airport in Beijing the previous day, reported NHK World. While the committee did not disclose which team the athlete or official belongs to, it revealed that three people who were not members of a team also tested positive at the airport. The committee also said that more than 38,000 tests were conducted on Sunday inside the so-called bubble separating Games-related personnel from the public. Two infections were confirmed from among those tests, reported NHK World.
From January 4 through Sunday, 43 coronavirus cases were found at the airport and 35 inside the Olympics bubble.
Meanwhile, the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 Organizing Committee (BOCOG) announced that a total of 72 confirmed positive tests for COVID-19 have been reported related to the games between January 4 and 22.
The number of cases reflects that the "Zero-COVID policy" of China has failed to contain coronavirus.
Moreover, the COVID-19 Omicron variant has been cropping up across China in recent days, including in major port cities like Dalian and Tianjin.
Also, as the rest of the world learns to live with the virus, economists say China's zero-tolerance strategy is likely to do more bad than good in 2022, Omicron could deal a blow to successfully organize Winter Olympics.
Aniket Jadhav then added more misery by scoring the third after a couple of minutes. His low shot from the left flank found the bottom-right corner and the Nizams went into the halftime break with a three-goal advantage.
Marcelo Ribeiro made his debut from the bench in the second half as the Red & Gold Brigade tried to find a breakthrough.
However, it was HFC that scored the fourth as Ogbeche finally got his first hat-trick of the season in the 75th minute. Javier Siverio's shot deflected into the Nigerian's path, who made no mistake in slotting the ball into the back of the net.
SCEB had a penalty awarded after Ribeiro was tripped inside the box but the spot-kick was saved well by Kattimani who correctly guessed Franjo Prce's attempt.
The Nizams kept their clean sheet intact for the remainder of the match and secured important three points.
Hyderabad FC will face Odisha FC in their next fixture on Thursday while SC East Bengal awaits a stern test from ATK Mohun Bagan in the Kolkata Derby in Margao on Saturday.