Winter Olympics tickets will not be sold as China seeks to contain Covid

Tickets will instead by distributed to chosen groups amid first reported locally transmitted cases of Omicron

Tickets to the Beijing Winter Olympics will not be sold to the general public, but distributed to targeted" groups, organisers have announced, in China's latest attempt to control the spread of the highly-infectious Omicron Covid variant.

Beijing reported its first locally transmitted Omicron case over the weekend, piling renewed pressure on authorities in the run-up to the Games, which are due to start on 4 February and coincide with the lunar new year celebrations week, typically the biggest travel period of the year.