Shanghai Disneyland Halts Operation And About 34,000 Tested For Covid-19 After Discovering Single Positive Case

Many tourists and employees were tested at Shanghai Disneyland on 31 October after a person who had visited the park tested positive for Covid-19.

Reports revealed that in a single night at Shanghai's Disneyland, according to health officials, they tested nearly 34,000 people for the novel coronavirus.

The park was abruptly closed on 31 October and everybody inside was prohibited from leaving. It also brought the theme park's metro station to a halt.

The authorities stated that these measures were taken to conduct a contact-tracing investigation after a lady who visited the park on 30 October tested positive for Covid-19 in neighbouring Jiangxi province.

According to the Associated Press, Shanghai said on 1 November that all of the guests who had been checked over the weekend had tested negative for the virus. As per the source, authorities stated that they would have to be examined again.

According to Chinese media, 100,000 individuals attended the park between 30 and 31 October, and all of them will now be tested.

One Disney fan, who went by the name Chen, claimed she was inside the park at 5pm on 31 October when she heard an announcement that everyone needed to be tested.

Thousands of people waited outside overnight while health professionals in hazmat suits conducted Covid-19 tests, according to short videos posted on Chinese social media by parkgoers. One video showed fireworks exploded in the night sky above hordes of police, public health personnel and park visitors.

On 1 and 2 November, Shanghai Disneyland and Disneytown—a shopping, dining and entertainment complex at the Shanghai Disney Resort—remained closed, with officials promising refunds or exchanges to any attendees affected by the closure.

Shanghai Disney Resort posted a notice on its website stating: “In order to follow the requirement of pandemic prevention and control, Shanghai Disneyland and Disneytown will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, November 1-2, 2021. We will notify guests as soon as we have a confirmed date to resume operations.”

“We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide refund or exchange for all guests impacted during this period. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!” it added.

Shanghai Disneyland’s incident is the newest example of how far Chinese authorities would go to restrict the virus’ spread inside the country. As reported earlier, China has subsequently implemented citywide lockdowns and other severe public health measures to keep the country's infection rate low.

For example, Heihe, a large port city in Heilongjiang Province in northeast China that borders Russia to the north, was placed under a citywide lockdown last week after one confirmed Covid-19 case was reported. Following China-Mongolia border city Ejin Banner and Northwest China's transit centre Lanzhou, it is the third city in China to enforce similar rules amid the latest resurgence of the coronavirus cases.