(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan’s delegation to the Beijing Winter Olympics will not attend the opening and closing ceremonies because of Covid-19 concerns and disrupted flight schedules, the island’s sports overseer said Friday.

Some of the 15 athletes, coaches and other staffers representing Taiwan in the Winter Olympics will miss the Feb. 4 opening ceremony because of Covid-related flight delays, the island’s Sports Administration said in a statement. The rest of the delegation will skip the event to allow athletes to rest, it said.

Team Taiwan will not take part in the closing ceremony as many members will have already left Beijing,  according to the statement.

Taiwan currently competes as “Chinese Taipei” at the Olympic Games at the insistence of Beijing, which claims the island as its own territory. Taiwan’s democratically elected government rejects the claim, asserting it’s a de facto separate country.

The Taiwan government has previously said none of its officials will attend the Beijing Olympics.

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