The announcement was made today by director of Beijing 2022’s Venue Management Department Yao Hui who said at a media conference that "if conditions allow we will arrange for spectators to attend certain competitions", as reported by Reuters.

Test events are set to begin this week with ten international competitions, three training weeks and two domestic trials scheduled to test competition zones in Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou before the end of this year.

The test events are due to take place in speed skating, skeleton, luge, figure skating, short track speed skating, curling, wheelchair curling, bobsleigh, ice hockey, freestyle ski cross, snowboard cross, Nordic combined and biathlon, as reported by Xinhua.

Curling and ice hockey are set to be open to domestic athletes only with others set to be open to overseas participants.

An estimated 2,000 overseas athletes, team officials, technical officials and timing and scoring personnel are expected to attend the test events.

Speaking about the presence of overseas participants at the test events Huang Chun, deputy director of Beijing 2022’s COVID-19 Prevention and Control Office said: "This will undoubtedly and clearly increase the risk of the import and spread of COVID-19."

Anyone travelling from overseas for the test events will be part of a closed loop management system, details of which were announced by organisers last week following a briefing with the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board.

Under the system, Games related personnel can only move between specified venues using dedicated transport and will be subject to daily coronavirus testing.

Organisers last week announced that Games related personnel not fully vaccinated will have to serve a 21-day quarantine period upon arrival.

The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee has made vaccination a requirement for its delegation travelling to Beijing, while the Russian Olympic Committee has recommended its delegation get vaccinated but not made it compulsory.