Taipei, Nov. 1 (US): Fireworks boomed as visitors at Shanghai Disneyland waited for COVID-19 test results, surrounded by health care workers in head-to-toe white protective suits.
Shanghai Disneyland suddenly announced, Sunday evening, that it is no longer receiving any visitors and that it is cooperating with an epidemiological investigation from another province. Then they sealed off the park, as health care workers and police in the city of Shanghai rushed to the scene for a mass test, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
Shanghai Disneyland said in a notice on Monday that the park is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays as it continues to cooperate with epidemic prevention efforts.
The sudden closure of the park and the temporary closure confirmed how serious China is in implementing the zero-tolerance strategy for epidemic prevention.
Globally, many countries have switched to living with the virus, whether by choice or necessity, although as waves of the virus come and go, many face overburdened health care systems, and excess deaths.
In China, which has kept its borders closed since March 2020, the political response has been to cut the chain of transmission of the virus as quickly as possible. With a strict on-arrival quarantine policy, authorities aim to stamp every local outbreak to zero – helping China keep reported overall figures at a relatively low level of 4,636 deaths among 97,243 cases since the pandemic began.
Local media reported that the case that prompted the taking of Disneyland includes a person who tested positive in the nearby city of Hangzhou and visited the theme park on Saturday.
For hours on Sunday night, tens of thousands of families and visitors were stuck in a theme park, waiting for a negative test result to allow them to leave.
One big Disney fan, who gave her last name Chen, said she was inside the park when she heard an announcement to take the audition at 5 p.m., but she dealt with the whole thing.
“No one complained, and everyone behaved really well,” she said. Chen said she holds an annual membership and visits the park at least once a month. She is waiting at a hotel for her second COVID test result before she is allowed to leave and return to Beijing.
The city announced Monday morning that all 33,863 people who were in the park over the weekend have tested positive for COVID-19. They will be asked to take the test again in the next two weeks and monitor their health.
Shanghai Disneyland is the latest example of how far Chinese authorities will go to stop the spread of the virus.
Last Thursday, Beijing Railway authorities notified Jinan health authorities to stop a train traveling from Shanghai to Beijing because a passenger had close contact with a person who tested positive for COVID-19.
Jinan health authorities then sent health care workers, transport workers and police to the station to quarantine passengers and sterilize the train. They sent 212 people into central quarantine, including close contact.
RAE