Tens of thousands stranded as Covid shuts down ‘China’s Hawaii’

The outbreak in Sanya came as Beijing and Hong Kong started to ease border controls.

A medical worker tests a child for Covid on Sunday in Sanya. Picture: Getty Images

More than 80,000 tourists are stranded in a resort city known as China’s Hawaii after a Covid flare-up led authorities to impose strict travel restrictions.

The outbreak in Sanya came as Beijing started to ease border controls and Hong Kong reduced mandatory hotel quarantine for international arrivals.

Tourism hotspot Sanya is a city of more than a million people on the southern island of Hainan, where 483 Covid cases were reported on Sunday. All flights out of the city were cancelled at the weekend, with authorities also halting train ticket sales.

Tourists who want to leave must test negative in five PCR tests over seven days.

Hotels in the city have been asked to offer guests a 50 per cent discount until the travel restrictions ease. The latest Covid outbreak comes during peak tourism season in Sanya, a popular surfing spot. All spas, karaoke bars and pubs have been closed since last week, but essential services such as supermarkets and pharmacies remain open

China is the only major economy holding fast to a zero-Covid strategy with snap lockdowns and long quarantines, battering tourism. The country’s borders have also remained largely closed since early 2020, halting international tourism.

On Sunday, Chinese aviation authorities shortened its suspension period for inbound inter­national flights carrying Covid-positive passengers, signalling that Beijing could soon ease its strict border controls.

Incoming flights carrying five positive Covid-19 cases, or 4 per cent of the total passengers, will now face a reduced one-week suspension, the Civil Aviation ­Administration said.

Previously, if a plane brought in five infected passengers, all flights operated by the respons­ible airline along the same route were suspended for two weeks. Flights logging an 8 per cent passengers positivity rate would be barred for two weeks, CAAC said.

The so-called circuit-breaker mechanism has led to travel chaos, with flights into China being cancelled abruptly without the ability to rebook for weeks.

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese students and workers abroad have been left stranded and have complained about paying exorbitant prices to buy tickets back home, with the limited number of flights entering the country routinely suspended.

On Monday, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said the territory would cut quarantine for international arrivals from one week to three days from Friday. Once a global hub, Hong Kong has been largely cut off from the rest of the world under its strict adherence to zero-Covid.

AFP