The Beijing 2022 Olympic Committee announced on January 17, 2022, that tickets to watch the Winter Games will not be sold to the public. The decision comes less than three weeks before the Games’ opening as China battles Covid-19 outbreaks. Sporadic outbreaks have spread to cities including Xian, Shenzhen and Tianjin, which is near to Beijing. On January 15, Beijing reported its first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant.