<span style="color: #222222;">Beijing Winter Olympics Organisers on Thursday strongly urged participants to get vaccinated for COVID-19 due to concerns about spread of the Omicron variant. Han Zirong, vice president and secretary-general of the Beijing Winter Olympics organising committee said at a press conference in Beijing that they expect a "certain number" of COVID-19 cases in China due to foreigners arriving for the Games. He sought to alleviate concerns about health care for participants prompted by COVID as well as an accident last month in a luge training session at the Beijing venue during which a Polish slider suffered a severe leg injury.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />''The Games, set to run from Feb 4 to Feb 20, will take place with all athletes and related personnel and staff in a "closed loop" in order to contain the spread of the virus in China, which has among the strictest COVID curbs in the world and has largely managed to contain local outbreaks. "A large number of people from different countries and regions will come to China and the flow of people will increase. Consequently, a certain number of positive cases will become a high probability event," Zirong said at the press briefing.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />''China, which has all but shut its borders during the pandemic and will not allow overseas spectators at the Games, has reported four Omicron infections from people coming from overseas. A national health official said on Monday that Omicron has also caused local transmission in the southern Guangzhou city, without specifying the number of cases. Delta variant has already forced Xian city to put 13 million people in lockdown. The fast spread of Omicron in North America led the National Hockey League to announce on Wednesday that its players will not participate in Beijing, depriving the Games of the star power of the sport's biggest names. <br />''<br />''Officials gave a detailed breakdown of medical personnel and facilities available to handle COVID cases, sports injuries and general medical care and expressed confidence the Games can proceed despite the highly infectious Omicron variant.</span>