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Los Angeles (AFP)
The famous attractions of California’s Disneyland park may be closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but that did not prevent hundreds of fans from queuing for access to the adjoining shopping center, which reopened on Thursday .
Some 25 shops and restaurants in Downtown Disney, which adjoins the amusement park in Anaheim, have resumed their activities after more than four months of closure, with masks and disinfectant gel required.
“Personally, I have been here since 11:00 pm” on Wednesday, a woman who stood in line before the opening told KTLA television. Several dozen other relentless fans showed up before dawn to be among the first to enter the mall.
Thursday morning, visitors, many of whom wore colorful costumes of their favorite Disney heroes, were to undergo a temperature check at the entrance to the site, an AFP reporter said.
Customers will have to content themselves with shopping in the shops of Downtown Disney because the amusement park remains closed until further notice.
Disney had initially planned to gradually reopen Disneyland from July 17 but gave it up last month, officially for lack of having obtained the green light in time from local authorities.
No new date has been announced by the world’s number one entertainment company.
Disneyland is the second most visited amusement park in the world, behind Disney World in Orlando (Florida), and usually attracts millions of tourists each year.
The parks of Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo have already reopened while the sites of Paris and Orlando plan to resume next week.
California, the most populous US state and one of the main outbreaks of Covid-19 in the country, currently records more than 8,000 new cases daily, for a total of nearly 300,000.
© 2020 AFP
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