The Disney Resort amusement park in Shanghai (China) has closed its doors this Monday by surprise, as strict prevention measures against Covid-19 have forced the closure of the facilities. Visitors inside are not allowed to leave until they test negative for coronavirus.
The park’s website states that in order to «comply with pandemic prevention and control requirements,» Shanghai Disney Resort, including Shanghai Disneyland, Disneytown and Wishing Star Park, will be closed as of Monday, October 31, 2022 «effective immediately.»
The theme park will refund or exchange tickets for visitors who were scheduled to arrive in the next few days and will be notified when a scheduled opening date is available.
The resort’s loudspeakers warned that the park would close its gates immediately at 11:39 a.m. local time. Both the main theme park and surrounding areas, including its shopping street, were closed until further notice to comply with virus restrictions imposed by China.
The Shanghai City Council also communicated on its social networks the closure of the park and the obligation for visitors and tourists to stay inside pending the result of the planned tests. In addition, anyone who has visited the park since last Thursday, October 27, must be tested for Covid-19 three times in three days, the government said.
In the last 24 hours, ten new cases of Covid have been detected among Shanghai residents – all of them asymptomatic – and there are another 34 cases among people from abroad, of which only four are showing symptoms.
The park was already closed for three months until March 2022 because of another Covid outbreak in the city earlier this year. It was subsequently opened with many restrictions, less capacity and fewer employees.
China is continuing with its ‘Zero Covid’ policy of radically isolating all infected people with or without symptoms, as well as close contacts. Border controls and mass PCR testing are also being carried out.
