19th Asian Games In Hangzhou Postponed Amid COVID Surge2In China

New Delhi: The 19th Asian Games, which were scheduled to be held in China’s Hangzhou from September 10 to 25, have been postponed.

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) informed this on Friday and said the decision has been taken as China is experiencing its biggest Covid-19 outbreak again after the virus first emerged in the country in December 2019.

“Following detailed discussions with the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) and the Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee (HAGOC), the OCA Executive Board (EB) today decided to postpone the 19th Asian Games, which were scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China, from 10 to 25 September 2022. The new dates of the 19th Asian Games will be agreed between the OCA, the COC and the HAGOC and announced in the near future,” the OCA said in a statement.

The host city of Hangzhou is less than 200 km (120 miles) from the country’s biggest city, Shanghai, is under lockdown for nearly a month as part of the ruling Communist Party’s zero-tolerance approach to the virus.

In the last few days, China’s capital Beijing, too, began tightening its Covid curbs.