winter games beginning. the torch relay now under way, scaled back, though, to just three days, as coronavirus cases rise. ahead of the games, athletes and olympics personnel have been sealed off from the public. cnn s david culver and selina wang take us inside and outside the olympic bubble. reporter: the motto of beijing s winter games is together for a shared future. it is a nice sentiment, but daily life in the chinese capital is far apart from the olympic enclave within it, and absolutely nothing is shared between the people that inhabit the two worlds. too great is the risk of omicron for china as it tries to maintain its zero covid policy. in the week leading to january 30th, 237 symptomatic infections were reported. arrivals testing and the daily screening of games participants registered around 200 positive results. the closed loop system means those olympic personnel who are visiting from other countries
pulling out from china indefinitely until they can ensure peng shui can speak freely. that closed loop system that is the olympic bubble, victor and alisyn. how is that olympic bubble working and keeping covid cases down? reporter: when you come to china in the midst of the pandemic, it is quite harsh, to be blunt with you. you have to go through several layers of testing constantly, monitored. you mentioned the athletes who are contracting covid-19. they are in isolation and it is really for them heartbreaking situations because it is out of your control. they will determine when you can
just six months ago. daily covid testing. being confined to a well defined closed loop system. in the closed look, you coul say fenced in. if any doubt how strict chinese authorities are in regard to spreading the virus, these chain linked walls say it all. jim, biana, the stress for the athletes does not stop when they arrive. four time olympian alana myers taylor one of the flag bearers of tomorrow s opening ceremony, she s one of the athletes who tested positive. she s been in isolation facility for almost a week but good news, she texted me just a little bit ago. she finally had her first negati test. if she has a second consecutive one, after a 24 hour period, she ll be released. first olympics as a mom. one of the most inspiring athletes i ve met and one of those rooting for. as you mentioned, very serious about the protocol but
of the total number of games participants inside those bubbles and they re determined to keep it that way. now, obviously, state media has also said so far there appears to be no community spread of the virus within the bubbles. but this obviously is an increasingly daunting task as time goes on with more events kicking off and especially given how contagious the omicron variant is. now, most of our cnn colleagues covering these games from within the bubbles have now arrived in the city, and among their first impression they ve been telling me are those high walls and fences around their hotels and all the venues. and this is obviously, you know, for the strict implementation of this closed loop system. but this is almost a metaphor of this sense of disconnect. a lot of ordinary chinese citizens feel about the winter olympics as well. because not only there is not a single ticket available for sale for them to watch the competitions because of the pandemic, a lot of them have
to the process. it s been hard to go through, but i have so many incredible staff at the state department. and it s the same thing on the ground there. we re in a closed loop system. so there isn t a tunon of freed to go out and do things, but that s okay. that s something with all the staff on the ground, they re doing an incredible job keeping me safe. they re in china getting in touch with me daily. theth athletes on the ground o there, they re pretty busy and they make all this go, all the volunteers and staff are the only reason this happens. when you see an athlete compete, there s so many people that made that happen, that are behind the scenes. those are the heroes of those games. josh williamson, thank you. and best of luck to you.