Military Deployed Due to Norovirus Outbreak Ahead of Pyeongchang Olympics

The South Korean government has sent 900 military members to the facilities in Pyeongchang and removed 1,200 security guards following a norovirus outbreak ahead of the beginning of the Winter Olympics on Thursday, according to Sol Han and Ben Westcott of CNN.com.

Per that report, 41 security guards "suffered a sudden onset of vomiting and diarrhea on Sunday and had been taken to hospital."

"The military personnel ... will be responsible for security checks of the 20 venues as they take up jobs such as security searches, previously done by civilian safety personnel, until the patients' condition is normalized," the Pyeongchang Olympics committee noted in a statement.

"[The Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention] dispatched an immediate response team to the Pyeongchang site to check additional people for symptoms, check the origin of the exposure, take measures to control infection and prevent spread," the KCDC said in its statement.

It added that the infected security guards have all been residing in the same building, and it was unclear how they caught the norovirus.

In the wake of the outbreak, "Olympic accommodation and buses were being disinfected" and "Water and food at the accommodations are currently being tested, while the Winter Olympics committee said it would strengthen checks on sleeping quarters for staff working at the games to prevent further infections," according to CNN's report.

It isn't the first time a norovirus outbreak has occurred at a major sporting event. According to BBC News, several athletes had to withdraw from last month's World Athletics Championships in London after an outbreak of the sickness struck a hotel.

The latest outbreak is a major concern just days ahead of the Olympics, however.

"I would like to apologise for this," Lee Hee-beom, president of the Olympics organizing committee, said per the BBC. "Our disease control centre [and] other related government agencies here are now discussing countermeasures."