Three athletes attending training events for the Beijing Winter Olympics have tested positive for Covid-19, Chinese officials said, with the country on high alert against the coronavirus ahead of the Games.

Beijing 2022 organisers have left nothing to chance with the games set to start in February, restricting entry to the capital and insisting on daily virus tests for thousands of athletes who will be kept within a “closed-loop” bubble, AFP reports.

One of the athletes, a foreign luger, tested positive at the airport when entering the country and was sent to a quarantine hotel along with another infected teammate as they had no symptoms, officials said last week.

But a third person has now tested positive — another luger and a close contact of the earlier cases, Zhao Weidong, an Olympics organising committee member, said.