Athletes and competitors that test negative at home could still be deemed positive on arrival in Beijing. The Beijing Olympic Committee has adopted stricter than usual testing for COVID-19 which can make it more difficult for Canadian athletes. Specifically, it may be more difficult for those who have recently recovered from the virus.
China uses a cycle threshold (CT) value of 40 to detect infection, according to Dr. Mike Wlkinson, chief medical officer for the Canadian Olympic Committee. The higher the cycle threshold value is, the fewer infections a person with COVID-19 is. Many places in Canada use a CT value of 35, the NBA and the NHL use 30, and the NFL uses 35.
Wilkinson explained “I think what Beijing is doing is that they’re doing everything they can to ensure they don’t have positives coming in,” However, a person who has recently recovered from COVID-19 can still test positive if the CT value is set high enough. Dr. Issac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist said “we start to think of people as less infectious,” when CT values are greater than 30.
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