BEIJING (AP) – China’s southern island province of Hainan has reported another 259 cases of COVID-19, with about 80,000 tourists stranded by pandemic restrictions.
Authorities on Saturday declared Hainan’s beach resort city of Sanya a COVID-19 hotspot and imposed a lockdown, confining Chinese citizens and expats to their hotels in what they hope is a holiday as much of China is heavily restricted . Tourists who want to leave Sanya must take five PCR tests within seven days, all of which are negative.
Overall, China reported 324 new locally transmitted cases on Monday, as well as 483 asymptomatic cases, which China has classified separately.
China firmly adheres to the “zero new crown” policy, despite the economic and social costs. It argues that this approach keeps hospitalization and death rates lower than other countries that have opened up with higher vaccination rates, more effective treatments, and the emergence of more contagious but less lethal strains of the virus.
