A different kind of snowball could be waiting for journalists at the media center after they finish their coverage of the winter Olympics.
According to the South China Morning Post, the media center for the Beijing Winter Games has a robot bartender that can mix and serve drinks in 90 seconds. Guests can order their drink by scanning a code on their phone.
The installation comes at a time when organizers are trying to minimize the risk of spreading the disease. The robotic bartender is one of the things that will be operated by machines at the games, according to the Post.
A robot bartender sits behind a circular bar with bottles suspended from the ceiling, according to a video. In the video, the robot is shown filling a cocktail shaker from one of the overhead bottles, adding ice, and straining the green liquid into a cocktail glass.
The bar will be staffed by a number of humans to help out the bot.
The restaurant, which is only open to people working at the Olympics, will serve food such as burgers and rice that are prepared and served by machines. The orders are lifted straight from the automated kitchen and lowered directly to the tables.
China has operated a strict zero Covid policy since the start of the Pandemic, aiming to keep cases out of the country. It has the same approach to the games.
The closed-loop system means that athletes, media personnel and Olympics staff will be isolated from the general domestic population. International visitors are not allowed to attend the games as spectators.
Athletes and staff are required to present a negative test before boarding any flights bound for the games, again upon arrival at the airport, and a third time before entering the closed loop, according to the International Olympic Committee.
At a remote technical briefing earlier in the week, the chair of Beijing 2022, Dr. Brian McCloskey, said that there were three layers of testing that aimed to filter out any potential positive cases at every stage.
The target is zero spread within the closed loop, and that protects the people of China by keeping the domestic population separate from the participants coming in from around the world, according to Dr. McCloskey.
The games will take place between February 4 and 20 and athletes and staff will be subject to regular tests.
According to the International Olympic Committee, pre-Games testing has demonstrated that the system in place is operating successfully. 33 positive results have been reported within the closed loop.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
