Public transport was suspended and people’s movements within the city were restricted since early Saturday, authorities said. Stranded tourists must stay seven days and undergo five Covid-19 tests before leaving.
Deputy Mayor He Shigang said on Friday that about 80,000 tourists remained in the city. All those currently in Sanya, as well as people who have been in the city since July 23, were not allowed to leave Hainan province after 6pm local time on Saturday, authorities said provincial
The restrictions come at the height of the summer tourist season in the island province, a popular destination often called China’s Hawaii for its sandy beaches, tropical forests and high-end hotels.
More than 80 percent of flights out of Sanya were canceled on Saturday, according to data from flight tracking company Variflight. All trains leaving Sanya were cancelled, state broadcaster CCTV said on Saturday.
Sanya authorities acknowledged the inconvenience to tourists and pledged during a press conference on Saturday afternoon to do everything possible to resolve any issues that arise, including streamlining cancellations of travel reservations and offering discounts half price hotel stays for tourists stranded in Sanya.
The city was divided into high and medium risk zones, with control measures varying depending on the level of risk, according to local authorities. The entire city, however, was considered under “static management”, an official term used to describe the deployment of lockdown measures.
The city, which is on the southern tip of Hainan Island, has recorded 827 cases between August 1 and midnight on Saturday, including 240 confirmed cases and 173 asymptomatic infections on Saturday, according to an announcement by the provincial health authorities Sunday morning. China counts symptomatic and asymptomatic cases separately.
Saturday’s figures make the outbreak the most severe in China, which reported a total of 736 locally confirmed and asymptomatic cases nationwide for the day.
Authorities have said they detected the highly transmissible subvariant Omicron BA.5.1.3 in the outbreak, which they believe spread to the island through contact with overseas seafood traders in Sanya’s Yazhou fishing port.
Hainan provincial authorities also announced province-wide nucleic acid testing on Saturday for its population of 10 million, as cases have been reported in other parts of the island.
Another Hainan city, Danzhou, announced partial lockdown measures for its roughly 1 million residents on Saturday afternoon, according to an official bulletin, while authorities in the city of Qionghai announced a series of measures on Sunday, closing most non-essential business and ordering half of it. one million residents to stay at home unless necessary, effective that morning, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
The latest measures come as China’s economy struggles under its strict “zero-Covid” policy, in which it aims to suppress the spread of the infection through lockdowns, mass testing and tough border controls.