Visitors at Shanghai Disneyland were left stranded at the park on Monday, after the resort halted operations to comply with new COVID-19 restrictions amid a new outbreak of the virus.
On Monday morning Shanghai time, officials immediately closed the amusement park and surrounding areas to new visitors and people were told to stay in the park until they present a negative COVID-19 test, Reuters reports.
The local Shanghai government said on its WeChat account that anyone who had visited the resort since last Thursday (Oct. 27) must take a test three times a day for three days.
Reuters cited social media users reporting that some rides were still operating for visitors who were stuck in the park.
A Shanghai Disney spokesperson told Reuters it has “limited offerings” for people and were complying with the Chinese authorities’ “zero-COVID” strategy.
In a statement on its website, it said it was closing the resort with immediate effect to comply with pandemic prevention and control rules. “We will notify guests as soon as we have a confirmed date to resume operations,” the company said. It said it will provide refunds or exchanges.
On Saturday, the resort has imposed a reduced capacity service in line with new COVID-19 curbs and had cut down its workforce temporarily.
It is not the first time that the Disney resort has shut visitors in amid new pandemic restrictions. Last November, the amusement park was closed down for two days, shutting in over 30,000 people, who had to be tested in a contact tracing program before leaving.
The park has been seen its fair share of disruption as earlier this year, it was shut for more than three months during a lockdown in the city. It reopened in June, where visitors has to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within the last 72 hours.
As of Sunday, Shanghai has a reported 10 local cases of COVID-19, all asymptomatic.
Elsewhere, the COVID curbs prompted workers at the Foxconn manufacturing plant in the city of Zhengzhou to leave the facility on foot on Sunday after a number of employees were quarantined after an outbreak of coronavirus.
