In recent days, more than 1,000 cases of Covid-19 have been detected on the island of Hainan, in southern China. The authorities have made the decision to confine the territory by canceling all flights and trains to or from the island this weekend, which is why more than 80,000 tourists are trapped there. In Sanya – a very touristy coastal town in the south of the island with more than a million inhabitants – 483 cases of coronavirus were registered this Sunday.
“We have sent those who tested positive to hospitals for isolation and treatment. They are now in stable condition,” said Ji Duanrong, secretary general of the Sanya municipal government.
In Sanya, public entertainment venues such as spas, karaoke bars and bars have been closed since last week, but essential services such as supermarkets and pharmacies remain open.
Five negative tests in seven days
Vacationers who want to go out must present five negative tests in the last seven days and must remain confined in the meantime. “We tried to go to another city, Haikou, which is in the north of the island,” Thomas Royet, a French tourist in Sanya, tells TF1, but “they blocked us at the controls after 10 km, so we were forced to back”. .”
The city claims to have opened many checkpoints where residents and foreigners queue up every day to get their exit ticket. Kyle, a teacher from Shanghai, explains to the Belgian outlet LN24 that you have to “drive for about 10 minutes” to get to a screening center, “then stand in line for two hours each time to try to get tested”, although the situation seems to be improving at this point, he stresses.
On its website, the city of Sanya has thus the opening this Tuesday of a laboratory and the possibility of analyzing 100,000 Covid-19 tests per day.
“We have divided the city into different areas and set up test points,” Ran Cai, a representative of the Sanya municipal health commission, also explained during a press conference. Count “one point for 2000 to 3000 people”.
“We have no return date, no visibility”
In this southern city, hotels across the city will offer guests a 50% discount until travel restrictions are lifted.
They “are obliged not to increase the price of accommodation and not to reject requests from tourists to extend their stay. They must also give a 50% discount for the extension of the stay,” Ye Kaizhong explained during a press conference on Saturday. Deputy General Secretary. of the Sanya municipal government.
“What tires us is that we don’t have a return date, we don’t have visibility. We book every day and the flight is canceled every day”, laments on TF1 Nicolas Coster, a French tourist confined to the place. ‘We just hope it doesn’t become another Shanghai,’ Chinese city recently shut down for several months, tourist says Reuters.
China is the only major economy that continues to pursue a zero covid strategy, imposing lockdowns and lengthy quarantines that penalize local tourism. The country’s borders have been almost completely closed since the beginning of 2020, preventing the entry of foreign visitors.
Source: BFM TV
