Beijing:
According to Chinese state media, the 2022 Asian Games has been postponed due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in China. The Asian Games were initially scheduled to take place from September 10 to September 25 in Hangzhou.
The Asian Games have been postponed in an effort by China to manage a new wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
No revised date has been specified for the tournament yet. Chinese state media, citing the Olympic Council of Asia, confirmed the postponement of the Games. While it is understandable that the postponement took place amid rising COVID-19 fears in the country, no official reason has been given for the delay.
“The Olympic Council of Asia has announced that the 19th Asian Games, originally scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China from September 10 to 25, 2022, will be postponed,” a statement on the official Asian Games website said.
Earlier, the Tokyo Olympics 2020 was also postponed by a year, when the COVID-19 pandemic first started spreading across the world. However, exactly a year later, the Olympics were successfully held in Tokyo in 2021.
Late last month, it was reported that postponing the Asian Games (which is second only to the Olympics in terms of number of participants) was becoming a possibility due to the growing threat of COVID-19 in the country. In fact, the number of infections China is currently facing is the highest ever.
With a record number of daily cases being reported in Shanghai, the city has been under strict lockdown for more than a month. Hangzhou, the venue of the Asian Games, is only a short train ride away from Shanghai.
Hangzhou, an e-commerce hub in the country, has made it mandatory for each of its 10 million residents to take at least one nucleic acid test every 48 hours after COVID-19 cases rose to an unprecedented high.
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