Hainan Sanya COVID outbreak forces lockdown

On China’s resort island of Hainan, many cities, including the provincial capital Haikou, have been put on lockdown as the COVID-19 outbreak escalates, pushing tens of thousands to one of the country’s most popular holiday destinations. Things tourists are stuck.

The state reported 504 cases on Sunday, bringing the current outbreak to nearly 1,500 since the first infections were detected a week ago. Haikou, the island’s main flight hub, and Sanya, a seaside resort city, are in lockdown, while Wanning and Qionghai are under “static control,” a term commonly used to refer to the blockade. .

The tropical urban outbreak has spread to 10 cities and counties in Hainan and at least four other provinces, including Hunan and Guizhou, each reporting one infection from Sanya on Sunday.

As of Saturday, 25,000 tourists were trapped in Sanya hotels, according to a briefing by the provincial government on Sunday. Arrangements have been made for his more than 3,000 tourists at Sanya Phoenix International Airport to stay at nearby hotels. Stranded travelers have to pay half the room rate this week.

More than 81 million tourists will visit the island in 2021, with tourism spending rising to 250 billion yuan ($53 billion), both figures up about 26% year-on-year.

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Overall, 807 cases were reported on Sunday, up from 736 on Saturday, the highest number in two weeks. The resurgence of cases, which had fewer than 300 as of Wednesday, indicates the difficulty of meeting the country’s stringent COVID-Zero policy in the face of the more virulent Omicron subspecies. After curbing outbreaks in big cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen, cases continue to emerge in other areas.

Tibet recorded four new cases on Sunday for the first time in 920 days. Only one case of him had ever been detected in the remote mountainous area since the pandemic began.

One city and two towns in Hainan province were put on lockdown on Monday, according to Reuters calculations based on state media reports.