Foreign
THE Chinese authorities have extended a lockdown on the tropical Hainan Island beyond the beach resort city of Sanya in a bid to prevent an outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic from spreading.
State media reported on Monday that four more cities on the Island: Wanning, Danzhou, Qionghai and Lingshui had been affected by the lockdown.
Tens of thousands of Chinese tourists had been stranded at Sanya, known as “China’s Hawaii’’, as flights, rail services and other public transport were halted in the city over the weekend.
The authorities launched the measures after more than 1,100 cases were detected in Hainan, a southern island city with a population of 10 million, state media said on Monday.
The trouble is that a lack of testing capacity makes it difficult to establish the full extent of the outbreak.
Multiple rounds of regular mass testing may be needed to reduce the risk, health experts said, according to a report that cited the rapid spread of the Omicron BA5.1.3 variant.
It said that in Sanya alone, some 30,000 tourists were stuck in hotels, while no fewer than 50,000 more were told to stay in their holiday flats.
The authorities ordered hotels to half their rates for the stranded tourists but there had been isolated cases where hotels refused to comply, or suddenly doubled their prices.
The party-affiliated Global Times reported, adding that these problems would be addressed.
While the rest of the world has opted to coexist with the Coronavirus, Beijing continues to pursue a strict zero-COVID policy, imposing sweeping lockdowns on any outbreak, which has significantly dampened economic growth. (dpa/NAN)
A.I
Tags: Danzhou Omicron BA5.1.3 variant Qionghai
