Coronavirus Outbreak: Olympic Council of Asia remains hopeful of hosting Asian Beach Games in Sanya despite fresh cases in China

New Delhi: The Olympic Council of Asia on Tuesday said it remained “hopeful” of hosting the sixth Asian Beach Games at the Chinese city of Sanya in November, despite that country still reporting COVID-19 cases. The OCA said it has received encouraging words from the organising committee of the Asian Beach Games set to take place from November 28 to December 6 this year, where 45 member countries are expected to participate in 17 sports. [caption id=“attachment_8259981” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational photo. Image credit: Twitter/@AsianGamesOCA[/caption] This was after Sanya Vice Mayor Zhou Jun informed the OCA that the resort city in tropical Hainan province has not registered any new COVID-19 cases for over two months. “The OCA has been in regular contact with the organising committee and Chinese Olympic Committee over the past three months and we have been very impressed with how the authorities have handled the COVID-19 outbreak in Sanya and Hainan province,” OCA Director General Husain Al-Musallam said in a statement. “We remain hopeful that our Asian Beach Games can go ahead as planned in seven months’ time. We will continue to monitor the situation with the organising committee, the Chinese Olympic Committee and with all our National Olympic Committees in the five zones of Asia.” Al-Musallam said “there is still a long way to go with respect to controlling and preventing the spread of COVID-19 around Asia because the health, safety and well-being of our athletes is the most important factor”. In a letter to the OCA, Sanya Vice Mayor Zhou Jun, who is also Deputy Secretary-General of organising committee, said, “Since February 12, 2020, no new cases of confirmed infections have been reported in Sanya for 62 consecutive days, and the last confirmed patient was cured and discharged from hospital on March 8. “As of 24:00 on April 13, Hainan reported a total of 29 asymptomatic cases, including 18 cases in Sanya. A total of 22 cases were freed from quarantine, while seven cases are still under medical observation. Among the 29 asymptomatic patients, seven cases were imported from abroad.” The Chinese official said the organising committee was “speeding up the preparation in an orderly manner, hoping to bring everyone a trendy, green, fantastic and magnificent Asian Beach Games”. The COVID-19 pandemic originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Though the dreaded disease has been contained in the country it has wreaked havoc across the globe, registering more than 1 lakh deaths so far. China is still reporting COVID-19 cases with more than 1,000 cases are still active. Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak