The Disneyland theme park in the eastern Chinese city of Shanghai reopened its doors today after its temporary closure on November 29, the third time this year that it has been forced to to close due to covid outbreaks.
The park had already been closed for almost three months in spring -during the confinement in Shanghai- and just under a month in November; on this last occasion, it had to suspend its operations again just four days after receiving visitors again.
Despite the fact that the park indicated that it would continue to require a negative PCR test certificate from the last 48 hours, the Yicai economic news portal points out that searches for the tourist park outside Shanghai on the LY.com travel portal skyrocketed. 900% after the reopening announcement.
In recent days, the official press has begun to minimize the risk of the omicron variant through numerous articles and interviews with experts, a turn of argument that accompanies the relaxation of some of the strictest measures of the ‘zero’ policy. covid’, in force for almost three years.
The authorities have already stated that the “conditions” are in place for the country to “adjust” its measures in this “new situation” in which the virus causes fewer deaths, although they have also announced a plan to speed up vaccination of the elderly, one of the most vulnerable groups but at the same time more reluctant to be inoculated.
Just yesterday, the Chinese Executive announced that it will allow those infected with asymptomatic or mild symptoms to isolate themselves in their homes -until now transfer to a quarantine center was mandatory- and indicated that it will no longer be necessary to have a negative covid test to enter most places and establishments, with the exception of hospitals or schools.
The changes came after the weariness of the restrictions crystallized in protests in various parts of the country after the death of ten people in an apparently confined building in Urumqi (northwest), with slogans such as “I don’t want PCR, I want to eat” or “give me back my freedom”.
The Government defends that it has saved millions of lives through the ‘zero covid’, which consists of the isolation of all those infected and their close contacts, strict border controls, partial or total confinement in places where cases are detected and constant PCR tests to the urban population.