The Shanghai Disney Resort abruptly suspended its operations around noon to comply with anti-Covid prevention measures, forcing all visitors to the facility to stay until a negative nucleic acid test result is negative. It is not the first time that the resort has ended up at the center of draconian measures and it is no surprise that they have been adopted, given that the use of a reduced workforce was announced on Saturday by activating the maximum anti-pandemic alert protocols. The resort said shortly before noon that it would close the main theme park and surrounding areas, including the shopping street, with immediate effect until a new warning to follow containment standards for the novel coronavirus. The Shanghai government said on its WeChat account that the park had banned people from entering or leaving and that all visitors to the site would have to wait for their test results before they could leave.
In addition, anyone who had visited the park since October 27 would have had to undergo the Covid-19 test three times in a row in as many days. The park continued to run attractions for stuck visitors throughout the day, according to social media posts in Mandarin. Shanghai reported 10 locally transmitted cases on October 30, all of them referring to people without symptoms. The closure marks the latest disruption of activities for the Disney Resort, which was blocked for more than three months during the Shanghai lockdown in April and May.
The park was also closed for two days in November 2021 with over 30,000 visitors inside, after authorities ordered everyone to be tested for outbreak contact tracing. China continues to impose ‘zero tolerance’ on Covid, with lockdowns, limitations and mass testing to reduce any possibility of transmission of the virus. The Universal Resort in Beijing reopened today after a five-day closure linked to virus prevention measures. In Macao, on the other hand, MGM Macao ended up in lockdown, while in nearby Guangzhou an entire production district was blocked due to fears of contagion.