The second stage of the 2021-22 season of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) began on Saturday in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province. Both the league and local authorities said they are ready to handle COVID-19 and ensure the safety of the games and the host city.

Nearly 2,000 players, coaches, referees, working staffs and media personnel will stay in Changchun for at least 35 days, while 20 teams play 150 games during the same period. All of this calls for higher standards for COVID-19 protocols.

The CBA has introduced closed-loop management for the second stage, requiring all players, media personnel, security staffs, hotel employees, staff at the arenas and others involved to have health monitoring and PCR tests.

Zhao Xian, deputy mayor of Changchun, told Xinhua News Agency that "green areas" for dining, exercising, hair-dressing, entertaining, team meetings and other necessary purposes have been set up in designated hotels. There are separate passages made to these green areas. Moreover, samples of all materials used for dining in the designated hotels will be kept for 48 hours and can be traced to the source.

The second stage of the 2021-22 season had been originally arranged to take place in both Changchun and Zhu Ji, east China's Zhejiang Province. However, the league decided to concentrate all games in Changchun after taking consideration into the latest development of pandemic in east China.

It took less than a week for all the coordination and preparations to be finished and put all competitions in one city. CBA CEO Zhang Xiong credits the excellent work to the multiple emergency counter plans they have prepared.

The CBA began to allow spectators for some of the same games at the second stage. For example, the eye-catching matchup between the Liaoning Flying Leopards and Beijing Ducks was the first one open to fans.

"It has been two seasons since I watched a CBA game at an arena in Changchun," local resident Zou Linfeng told Xinhua. "Everyone is looking forward to it. Tickets have been sold out in minutes."

The Liaoning-Beijing game was part of the new "Super CBA Weekend" presented by the league. Liu Chao, chief of the marketing department, said the CBA will put more key games on the weekend like Saturday night so fans are able to enjoy them on their days off.