China is known for its rigorous corona measures. Just a few cases are enough for Beijing to seal off entire metropolises for days and sometimes even weeks. This time, an outbreak hits the resort island of Hainan. Stuck tourists are upset.
Tens of thousands of tourists have been stranded in the Chinese holiday paradise of Sanya on Hainan Island, known as “China’s Hawaii”, due to a corona outbreak. Flights and rail connections were stopped after several hundred infections were discovered on the island and the virus apparently continued to spread, state media reported.
As the rest of the world tries to live with the virus, China continues to adhere to a strict zero-Covid policy, imposing sweeping restrictions on any outbreak. According to the vice mayor, there are 80,000 tourists in Sanya, 30,000 of whom are in hotels. Many Chinese also maintain their own holiday apartments in Sanya, where they live temporarily.
Hotels have offered price reductions of 50 percent for stuck travelers, the newspaper “Global Times” reported. Tourists are only allowed to leave Sanya after a seven-day risk assessment. Public transport was stopped on Saturday. According to state television, Sanya Airport has canceled all flights for today – on Saturday there were 164 machines.
A video posted on social media saw travelers at the airport shouting “We want to go home!” shouted while an official struggled over a megaphone to tell them to return to hotels. More than 500 cases have been reported in Hainan since Monday. A further 297 cases on the island were reported by the Beijing Health Commission today. It is the majority of the 337 new infections across China that were discovered the previous day. 399 asymptomatic cases were also identified in the country.
