Freedom thanks to the spit test – Olympia’s special testing strategies

The good news first: All tests have been negative so far, at least in my case when it comes to the corona tests before and during the Olympic Games. This is not the case with the games themselves. By Friday, 220 positive cases had been registered in the context of the Summer Games, 27 of which were athletes. On Friday there were 27 new cases, the previous daily high during the event, which has now been running for a week and a half.

As a press representative, you were examined twice with a PCR test before departure. There were further tests upon arrival and on the first three days in Tokyo. The so-called spit test is carried out here on site; the Japanese do not take nasal or throat swabs.

You get a small plastic bag with a plastic tube and a sticker with a registration number in it. To do this, a QR code is scanned and you have to register on a website. In small cubicles you spit into the tube, put a sticker on it, put everything back in the bag and hand it over. They can be handed out at any competition venue; the test kits are only available in the large press center. After the first tests are negative, you will then be checked every fourth day (the athletes will continue to do so daily). My turn was on Saturday, the next test is on Wednesday. Only in the event of a positive result will you or the Covid representative be contacted. Ruwen Möller reports from Tokyo.

In my case it is me. As such, you also enter data about your health status into an app every day. I had initially forgotten about it for Saturday, but if you've exceeded the deadline, it only takes ten minutes and a warning comes via email. Yesterday this app also had good news for me: “Cleared” was written there and the health traffic light was set to green. This means: I can now officially move outside the media bubble. A bit strange, as this was actually only planned for 14 days after entry and other colleagues who have been on site for a long time do not yet have permission. However, I have no need to put myself or others at risk and will just stay in the press bubble. The tests are welcome to continue to be negative.

Tests are also carried out in Tokyo regarding doping. I don't have to worry about that, but Blessing Okagbare (Nigeria), co-favorite in the 100 meters, does. She tested positive. There were a few other topics, but overall the corona tests clearly pushed the issue of doping into the background. Whether that's positive or negative, well...

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Freedom thanks to the spit test – Olympia’s special testing strategies

Ruwen Möller, sports editor of Flensborg Avis, the daily newspaper of the Danish minority in Germany, writes regularly for s+ during the games. Today he talks about the test procedures on site.

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