Beijing Olympic Committee lowers threshold for producing negative COVID-19 test

The Beijing Olympic Committee and Chinese authorities are lowering the threshold for producing a negative COVID-19 test for any participant arriving at the Games, dropping the cycle threshold (Ct) value from 40 to 35.

A communication by Beijing 2022 was sent out Sunday explaining the change. The lower value makes it easier for participants to produce a negative test, especially if previously infected.

This comes 48 hours after the higher threshold value was questioned.

The higher the Ct value, the less infectious a person with COVID-19 is. Many places in Canada use a Ct value of 35.

The NBA and NHL use 30, while the NFL has set its threshold at 35.

"In order to adapt to the reality of the current environment and further support of Games participants, Beijing 2022 and the Chinese authorities, in consultation with medical experts and IOC, refined the countermeasures with the following changes effective 23 January 2022," it said in the communication.

Effective immediately for both airport testing and screening testing, participants whose PCR results have a Ct value greater than or equal to 35 will be managed in the same way as a close contact for seven days and will not generate any close contacts.

Anyone with a PCR result of less than 35 will be considered positive.

The Beijing Olympic Committee also released a statement on Sunday saying there had been 72 confirmed positive cases among early arrivals related to the Beijing Games — and all of them are non-athletes.

The positive cases were confirmed among 2,586 Olympic-related personnel who entered China during the period of Jan. 4-22. All 171 athletes and team officials who arrived during that period tested negative.

On Friday, the chair of the Beijing 2022 medical expert