Coronavirus lockdown: China tourist sites packed as country recovers
- 4 years ago
Just weeks after China eased social distancing rules, it would appear thousands are taking the chance to mingle in public once again.
About 20,000 sightseers flocked to a popular mountain range in China over the weekend — forcing authorities to shut it down — as the country loosened its coronavirus restrictions.
Photos and videos circulating on the Weibo social media platform show packs of mask-wearing visitors crowding pathways and jostling for space at the Huangshan, or Yellow, Mountains in Anhui province on Saturday and Sunday.
They had gathered for the traditional Ching Ming festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, according to the South China Morning Post.
Beginning Saturday, the Anhui provincial government had been offering free entry to 29 sites, including Huangshan, to encourage tourism, the outlet reported.
Visitors were required to show their health status on an app, get their temperatures checked prior to entry and wear surgical masks.
By Sunday, park authorities said they were forced to shutter the popular destination as the number of visitors surged to its daily limit of 20,000.
Anhui, which shares its western border with Hubei province — the initial epicentre of the deadly bug — last reported a new coronavirus case on February 27, according to official figures cited by the outlet.
In total, 990 cases, including six deaths, have been reported in the province.
By Monday morning, China had reported 82,665 coronavirus cases and 3212 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The US, Spain, Italy, Germany and France each have now tallied more cases than China.
“I think China is keeping a close eye on COVID-19 detections and may need to tune the social distancing measures that are needed to keep COVID-19 contained,” Benjamin Cowling, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Hong Kong University, told the outlet. “For now, it may be OK to relax some measures, but those measures should be tightened if case numbers pick up.”
The return to normality comes, more than three months after the killer virus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
At its peak, China was reporting thousands of new cases each day but now, after weeks of keeping residents in lockdown, the rate of infection has slowed significantly.
On Monday, for example, officials said China had just 39 new cases, and while experts have decided to relax restrictions, the public is being urged to still use caution.
“China is not near the end, but has entered a new stage. With the global epidemic raging, China has not reached the end,” Zeng Guang, the chief epidemiologist with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Health Times.
There are concerns, however, that easing coronavirus restrictions too early could lead to a “third wave” of infections.
Hong Kong epidemiologist Yuen Kwok-yung said that there could be a “new wave” of cases in mainland China, off the back of imported infections from Europe and the US, according to
About 20,000 sightseers flocked to a popular mountain range in China over the weekend — forcing authorities to shut it down — as the country loosened its coronavirus restrictions.
Photos and videos circulating on the Weibo social media platform show packs of mask-wearing visitors crowding pathways and jostling for space at the Huangshan, or Yellow, Mountains in Anhui province on Saturday and Sunday.
They had gathered for the traditional Ching Ming festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, according to the South China Morning Post.
Beginning Saturday, the Anhui provincial government had been offering free entry to 29 sites, including Huangshan, to encourage tourism, the outlet reported.
Visitors were required to show their health status on an app, get their temperatures checked prior to entry and wear surgical masks.
By Sunday, park authorities said they were forced to shutter the popular destination as the number of visitors surged to its daily limit of 20,000.
Anhui, which shares its western border with Hubei province — the initial epicentre of the deadly bug — last reported a new coronavirus case on February 27, according to official figures cited by the outlet.
In total, 990 cases, including six deaths, have been reported in the province.
By Monday morning, China had reported 82,665 coronavirus cases and 3212 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The US, Spain, Italy, Germany and France each have now tallied more cases than China.
“I think China is keeping a close eye on COVID-19 detections and may need to tune the social distancing measures that are needed to keep COVID-19 contained,” Benjamin Cowling, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Hong Kong University, told the outlet. “For now, it may be OK to relax some measures, but those measures should be tightened if case numbers pick up.”
The return to normality comes, more than three months after the killer virus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
At its peak, China was reporting thousands of new cases each day but now, after weeks of keeping residents in lockdown, the rate of infection has slowed significantly.
On Monday, for example, officials said China had just 39 new cases, and while experts have decided to relax restrictions, the public is being urged to still use caution.
“China is not near the end, but has entered a new stage. With the global epidemic raging, China has not reached the end,” Zeng Guang, the chief epidemiologist with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Health Times.
There are concerns, however, that easing coronavirus restrictions too early could lead to a “third wave” of infections.
Hong Kong epidemiologist Yuen Kwok-yung said that there could be a “new wave” of cases in mainland China, off the back of imported infections from Europe and the US, according to