BEIJING (AP) — Authorities have reported 259 more cases of COVID-19 in southern China’s island province of Hainan, where some 80,000 tourists have been stranded by restrictions to combat the pandemic.
The Sanya beach resort was declared a hotspot on Saturday, leaving Chinese citizens and expatriates confined to their hotels who had hoped to enjoy a vacation away from the harsh restrictions that remain in much of the country. Tourists who want to leave Sanya will have to test negative for coronavirus in five PCR tests carried out over seven days.
In total, China reported 324 new local infections on Monday, as well as 483 asymptomatic cases, which the government counts separately.
China has maintained its “zero COVID” policy despite the economic and social costs. He has attributed to this strategy the fact that death and hospitalization rates have remained lower than in other countries that have lifted measures once high vaccination rates, more effective treatments, and more contagious but less lethal variants of the virus appeared.
