More than 30,000 visitors to Shanghai Disneyland were detained within the theme park’s gates Sunday night and forced to undergo COVID-19 testing after a guest tested positive for the virus.
On Monday, Shanghai health officials confirmed that the impromptu lockdown resulted in 34,000 people being tested for COVID-19, NPR reported.
Park officials also shut down the metro station servicing the attraction and stated that the abrupt measures were taken to comply with a contact-tracing investigation after a woman who visited the park Saturday later tested positive for the virus in the neighboring Jiangxi province, the news outlet reported.
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The Disney visitors awaited nasal swabs while fireworks exploded overhead as part of China’s “zero tolerance” policy regarding the virus, intended to contain outbreak pockets, The Wall Street Journal reported.
According to government data, none of the detained Disney guests tested positive Sunday, and the country recorded 48 domestic COVID-19 cases spanning several provinces on Saturday, the Journal reported.
While global COVID-19 infections totaled more than 247 million cases that have resulted in more than 5 million deaths by late Monday, China has only reported 109,678 cumulative cases that have resulted in fewer than 5,000 deaths since the pandemic began, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.
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Meanwhile, Chinese media said an estimated 100,000 people visited the Shanghai park on Saturday and Sunday, all of whom will now need to be tested, NPR reported.
Shanghai Disneyland and Disneytown remained closed on Monday and Tuesday, and officials vowed to provide refunds or exchanges to any guests impacted by the closures, the news outlet reported.
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