Beijing 7 August : Tens of thousands of tourists are stranded on the well-known Chinese vacation island of Hainan due to a coronavirus epidemic, according to Chinese state media reports.Train and flight services towards Sanya city of Sanya were suspended after more than a hundred Covid-19 infections were found on the island which is often known as “China’s Hawaii”, dpa news agency reported the state media on Sunday.
As most of the world has chosen to live with coronavirus, Beijing remains committed to an absolute zero-Covid policy and imposes massive locks on all outbreaks.
According to Sanya’s deputy Mayor There are currently more than 80,000 tourists in the city.
While many tourists have holiday homes in the area about 30,000 stay in hotels that were reported to be offering 50% discounts on accommodation for guests who were in a position to not leave.
Public transport in the city was shut down on Saturday, and Sanya airport cancelled all flights Sunday morning, as per state-run television.
In a clip posted on Facebook, angry travelers were heard shouting “we need to go home” as an airport official tried to instruct the passengers to go back to their hotel using megaphone.
In a similar manner last month, more than one million of people in Wuhan the capital of Hubei province, where the Covid-19 pandemic was first identified was placed under lockdown after four cases of asymptomatic illness were discovered.
Wuhan was the first city in China to be placed under strict restrictions as the pandemic spread across the globe in the beginning of 2020.
In June, Shanghai emerged from a strict two-month lockdown.
However, the city’s residents were still adjusting to the “new normal” of frequent mass testing.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China has reported a total of 2,308,886 cases of Covid-19 as well as 5,226 deaths.
