Liu Ze jun, director of the Beijing Disease Prevention and Control Center, said this week that a health accident emergency response headquarters and 11 medical rescue teams have been set up in Beijing to ensure the health and safety of the athletes during the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
There are plans to prevent major epidemic diseases as such as the flu, said Liu. “There will be a number of health challenges during the Beijing Olympic Games”, he said including epidemics, and food and water safety. “Ensuring food and water safety is our key task”, Liu said.
According to Liu, Beijing will do everything necessary to prevent epidemics and food poisoning during the Games and pay particular attention to the risk of food poisoning and drinking water contamination inside the Olympic Village, gyms, stadiums, hotels and restaurants.
Meanwhile passengers traveling on Beijing’s new No. 5 subway line in 2008 will be able to watch live coverage of the Games. Ding Shukui, assistant general manager of Beijing Railway Construction and Management Co. Ltd., said the subway line, which has been under construction for the last four years, will have a transmitter every 200 metres that can receive above-ground television signals.
The locomotive and the last carriage on the train will be equipped with receivers that can transmit signals to the eight liquid crystal TV sets in each carriage, said Ding. The line also provides passengers with good access to mobile phone signals, which are patchy on the other subway lines.
The No. 5 north-south subway line will go into operation in September.
