This past Monday, the Disneyland resort located in Shanghai officially shut itself down because of the country’s COVID-19 protocols and is currently not allowing any people within the park to leak until they finally test negative for the virus.
Just prior to noon local time, the resort claimed it would be rapidly shutting down the park, along with nearby areas, in order to go along with policies in an attempt to cut down on the spread of COVID-19 cases. This insanely drastic action took place in the wake of Shanghai showing 10 locally spread cases this past Saturday. Various videos online spotlighted people rushing to the gates of the parks and resorts only to find them locked. One woman who had recently been to that particular Disneyland resort showed a positive test result for COVID-19.
“We will notify guests as soon as we have a confirmed date to resume operations,” explained the resort in a release.
The Shanghai government stated via its official WeChat messaging account that the amusement park was refusing to allow people to move in or out of the area and all persons inside would be blocked from trying to get out until they both took and received the results of their COVID tests. Additionally, those who had made their way through the area since the 27th of October will need to be tested a total of three times over the course of three days for COVID-19. Amusement rides will be kept running for those who are still stuck inside the walls of the park, as reported by various social media posts, per CNBC. Earlier this year, the resort was locked down for well over three months when the city shut down due to COVID.
A spokesperson for the Shanghai Disney Resort claimed that the location was still hosting “limited offerings” and complying with rules from Chinese health officials. This past November, the park was also shut down for a total of two days and at that time also trapped roughly 30,000 people after a drill for contact tracing was issued.
Over the past month, Shanghai has seen a total of 97 COVID-19 cases, as stated by Johns Hopkins University, reported by NPR. Overall, the city has sported a total of 64,282 infections and 595 deaths. The entire country has reportedly dealt with roughly 180,000 infections and 212 deaths over the past four-week period of time.
The Chinese economy has suffered very much due to the country’s overtly strict “zero-COVID” policy to deal with COVID-19. Earlier this past week, the MGM Cotai in Macau was shut down due to the virus.
“In compliance with the Macau Special Administrative Region Government of Pandemic Prevention and Control, our restaurants, spa, gym, swimming pool, and retail shops in MGM Cotai are closed and shuttle bus service for MGM Cotai is suspended until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience,” stated MGM in a release.
Recently, the nation’s leader, President Xi Jinping, chose to stand by the intense rules, claiming that the policy was “a “people’s war to stop the spread of the virus.”
