Tourists shop at a duty-free shopping mall in Sanya, South China's Hainan province, on March 12, 2020. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
BEIJING/SHANGAI – Sanya, a top tropical holiday destination on China's southern Hainan island, began closing its duty free malls on Friday in response to a worsening COVID-19 outbreak.
Health officials in Hainan told a news briefing on Friday that from August 1 to 5 the cumulative number of local confirmed cases reported in the current outbreak was 191
Sanya International Duty Free City in Haitang Bay, run by China Duty Free Group and Hainan's largest offshore mall, was closed on Friday to prevent COVID-19 spreading, a post on its Weibo account said.
Health officials in Hainan told a news briefing on Friday that from August 1 to 5 the cumulative number of local confirmed cases reported in the current outbreak was 191.
READ MORE: Xi: Dynamic zero-COVID policy works
Entertainment venues, including many bars and cinemas and some tourist sites, have also closed to help stem the spread of the virus, although hotels remain open and many contacted by Reuters said they were operating as usual.
This is the second time duty free malls have been forced to close in Hainan in 2022, with the island also seeing closures in April in the wake of another outbreak.
A resident receives nucleic acid test at a testing site in Xincheng District of Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Jan 4, 2022. (TAO MING / XINHUA)
Including the 127 local cases in Hainan, the Chinese mainland reported 162 locally-transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the National Health Commission said Friday.
Thursday saw no new deaths from COVID-19, with the total death toll at 5,226
Altogether 248 local asymptomatic carriers were newly identified.
A total of 147 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovery on the Chinese mainland on Thursday, said the Commission in its report.
ALSO READ: ‘Dynamic zero-COVID’ strategy remains best option for China
The total number of COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals after recovery reached 223,286 on the Chinese mainland as of Thursday.
Thursday saw no new deaths from COVID-19, with the total death toll at 5,226.