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Organisers of next month's Beijing Winter Olympics slightly eased the strict COVID-19 requirements for participants, a move that means fewer athletes are likely to be tripped up by positive tests, Reuters reported. 

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the changes on Monday (Jan 24), which included easing the threshold for being designated positive for COVID-19 from PCR tests and reducing to seven days from 14 days the period for which a person is deemed a close contact.

The changes, which take effect immediately and apply retrospectively, "have been developed in order to further adapt to the reality of the current environment and support the Games participants", the IOC said in a statement.

Organisers also began reporting data on positive COVID-19 tests among Games-related personnel, with 177 confirmed cases found among 3,115 international arrivals from Jan 4 to Jan 23, just one of which was among an athlete or support staffer, according to Beijing 2022 data released Sunday and Monday.

The Games are set to take place from Feb 4 to Feb 20 inside a "closed loop" bubble separating all personnel from the public amid what is effectively a zero-tolerance COVID-19 policy in China that has led it to all but shut its border to international arrivals.