Roughly 1,200 Olympic Security Guards Quarantined After Virus Outbreak

With the Olympic Games fast approaching, 1,200 security guards have been quarantined.

February 7, 2018

The Winter Olympics are fast approaching. The greatest spectacle in international sports will get underway this week, with the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang, South Korea set for Friday. What is an Olympic Games without some serious controversy, though? The previous games, which took place in Sochi, Russia, certainly weren't lacking drama. The conditions in Russia became arguably just as big a story as the athletic competition itself.

So, what's going down in South Korea? Well, roughly 1,200 Olympic security guards have been quarantined after an outbreak of a virus, according to USA Today. Dubbed Norovirus, it sounds awful, causing diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, and stomach pain.

The source of this discomfort, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is inflammation of the stomach, intestines, or both. It's not only a brutal virus for the people who get it—it's also highly contagious.

The Olympic organizing committee released a statement saying the guards have been replaced by military personnel. "To address the shortfall in security workforce due to the isolation, 900 military personnel have been deployed to take over the work of the civil safety personnel," the committee said. "They will work across 20 venues until all affected workforce are able to return to duty."

Officials are reportedly testing groundwater and food at a number of nearby facilities to see what could have caused the virus. According to the statement, which Olympics reporter Aaron Bauer shared on Twitter, there are 32 confirmed cases of the virus so far.

The virus typically stays in a person's system for one to three days, so we're hopeful that anyone who's been affected will recover quickly and painlessly.