PYEONGCHANG (South Korea) • Olympic officials are scrambling to contain an outbreak of the norovirus that has sickened dozens of security guards before the official start of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.
Around 1,200 security staff members have been kept in their rooms while they wait to be tested for the highly contagious virus, Olympic representatives said.
To make up for the personnel shortage, South Korea has deployed 900 members of its military.
At least 41 security guards have tested positive for the virus, which causes stomach pain and diarrhoea, according to South Korea's national news agency Yonhap.
The Olympics will begin tomorrow and run till Feb 25.
The outbreak appears to be centred on security staff members lodging near Olympic sites, but the precise source is unclear.
The tap water, the food preparation staff and the food itself are being assessed to trace the route of transmission, according to a statement from the Pyeongchang Organising Committee.
"As soon as a case, if any more, is identified, of course it is reported, then all the areas get disinfected," said Christophe Dubi, the executive director of the Games.
He added that while officials did not know the exact source of the virus, the food and beverage at the lodging were up to international safety standards.
With thousands of athletes, staff members and spectators housed in close quarters, it is no surprise that outbreaks of the norovirus have emerged at the Olympic Games, and other large-scale sporting events, in the past.
The most recent incident was at athletics' World Championships in London in August last year.
Besides the virus, the organisers are also facing an issue of having to deal with what might be the coldest Winter Olympics in history.
The 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway, where temperatures plummeted below -17 deg C, were among the coldest on record, according to AccuWeather.
Pyeongchang, however, is poised to challenge that mark this month.
Many of the 20,000 or so spectators at an opening ceremony dress rehearsal last Saturday left early, due to the -14 deg C temperature.
A blanket, a beanie, a heated cushion and warm pads for the hands and feet are part of a kit that will be distributed to spectators at tomorrow night's opening ceremony, which will be conducted in an open-air stadium.
Forty large heaters will also be added to the second floor of the stadium.
The brutally cold conditions are also warping skis and forcing some athletes to toss them out after training runs, an Alpine skiing course worker told Reuters yesterday.
"You can't do anything about it but, with the cold temperatures, the snow adheres to the ski base and twists it," Craig Randell, a start crew technician said at the Yongpyong Alpine Centre, where the slalom, giant slalom and team events will be held later this month.
"They are turning skis to garbage real fast."
NYTIMES, WASHINGTON POST, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
