No new cases of Covid-19 have been reported inside the Beijing Olympics “closed loop” for the first time, a win for organisers who have gone to extreme measures to prevent the Games from seeding an outbreak that leaks into the public.

Some overseas analysts warned that the Winter Games would put further pressure on China's “zero-Covid” stance, especially as authorities battled the new and more infectious Omicron.

But though a total of 435 infections were found among the 1.6 million tests conducted since Jan 23, daily case numbers have dwindled since the first week of this month, according to Reuters.