Shanghai Disneyland visitors locked inside over Covid case
As the war on Covid-19 rages on in China, some Shanghai residents are being told to stay home after a Disneyland outbreak spurred the resort’s lockdown. Those who had visited the city’s Disney Resort were essentially barred from leaving until a Covid test cleared them of the virus.
The event is just another example of China’s strict zero-Covid policy, forcing many residents to stay home. And, it marks the second time that people were locked inside Disneyland over the virus. Yesterday saw several city residents being notified to stay home along with their children if they had visited Disney since last Thursday. They were then told to undergo Covid testing for the next three days. One resident said she was notified that her family may have to go into central quarantine.
One Disney visitor from Shenzhen, Marvis He, says he was sad he flew from his city to Shanghai to visit the park.
“I feel disappointed, we waited so long in the park…..but we didn’t get to see anything and only got to get out at 10pm. We were also cold and hungry.”
According to The Straits Times, the first time a lockdown happened at Disneyland, saw 34,000 people were kept inside and subjected to mass Covid testing exercises. Even though everyone who was locked inside tested negative, they were still told to stay home for the next two days after being released. The flagship theme park then shut down last year, only reopening in June of 2022.
As the rest of the world has moved on to living with the virus, China still sees it as a major threat that needs to be dealt with accordingly. But the effects of multiple lockdowns, border restrictions and extreme amounts of testing have pushed the economy to its breaking point.
In Shanghai, daily local cases hit 2,719, marking the highest number of cases per day since August 17. Overall, China has seen an uptick in the number of daily cases, leading to a slew of new restrictions from Wuhan, the epicentre of the Covid outbreak. China’s iPhone factory, the largest in the world, has also seen increased restrictions, making the country’s economical road to recovery that much more difficult.
