More than 2,000 tourists confined in the city of Beihai, China due to the outbreak of Covid-19

Around 2,000 tourists were stranded in a city in southern China, specifically, Beihai, and all due to a sudden confinement imposed by local authorities in order to stop the outbreak of covid-19 in the region.

Last week there was an outbreak of 500 people infected with coronavirus in the city, for which the Beihai government took the measure of carrying out mass tests and preventing residents from leaving their homes.

It should be noted that Beihai is a major tourist city in southern China, known for its volcanic island in the Guangxi region and its white sand beach.

In the same way, the authorities reported that tourists would be treated according to their level of exposure, that is, those who did not visit any medium or high risk area, nor were they in direct or secondary contact with someone infected with covid-19. 19, they could return to their cities if the coronavirus test returned a negative result.

For their part, the rest of the people would have to remain in the city of Beihai and undergo quarantine. Another of the government's measures was to dismiss two officials who did not apply the pertinent measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

The confinement also reached places such as Weizhou Island, known for its beaches and located more than an hour by boat from Beihai. On Friday, tourists were evicted from the islet and hotels were required to return the money to their guests. Entertainment venues such as cinemas and bars were closed on Sunday.

Economic consequences of the confinement in China

According to the National Health Commission, around 16 provinces in the country have registered infections this month and about 600 covid-19 infections were reported in the country on Sunday, which is the largest increase since May.

Local governments are alert and applying the respective measures to stop the outbreaks of the new highly transmissible omicron subvariants. An example of this is the tourism sector that has been affected by sudden lockdowns and travel restrictions.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism reported that compared to last year's Labor Day holiday, only 160 million domestic trips were made this time, which is a third less than the previous period.

For its part, in Macao confinement was imposed from July 11 and this Saturday it was reported that it will last until the 22nd of this month. All this because 1,700 infections have been registered since June 15. Among the measures applied, casinos were closed and residents were prohibited from leaving, they are only allowed to go out to buy food and medicine.