Beijing: Shanghai’s Disney Resort shut down operations on Monday to comply with China’s strict zero-Covid policy, while trapping all visitors inside at the time of the announcement.
People have been told they will not be allowed out of the theme park until they can show a negative test.
The resort said at 11:39 am local time (11:39 pm ET) it would immediately shut the main theme park and surrounding areas, including its shopping street, until further notice to comply with virus curbs, reports CNN.
The Shanghai government said on its official WeChat account the park was barring people from entering or exiting and that all visitors inside the site would need to await the results of their tests before they could leave.
Anyone who had visited the park since Oct 27 would need to test for Covid-19 three times in three days, it said.
The theme park continued to operate rides for visitors stuck in the park during the closure on Monday, social media users reported.
No date has been given for when the park will reopen. Shanghai Disney said tickets will be valid for six months and refunds will be given.
Not the first time that resort shut unexpectedly
This is not the first time that the Shanghai Disney Resort shut unexpectedly. The park was shut for over three months during Shanghai’s lockdown earlier this year.
It was also closed for two days in November last year with more than 30,000 visitors stuck inside, after authorities ordered all of them to be tested in a contact tracing exercise.
According to a BBC report, millions of people are under 200 different lockdowns in China, as of October 24, as the country of 1.45 billion consistently records more than 1,000 new Covid cases a day. The numbers are seen as relatively small outbreaks in other parts of the world.
