Guests of Shanghai Disney unable to leave without negative COVID test
China
China

Guests of Shanghai Disney unable to leave without negative COVID test

While the vast majority of the world moves on from the pandemic, China is still clinging to its 'zero-COVID' policy. 

The controversial policy has already seen millions of people repeatedly locked down, sometimes in unusual locations.

With more, here's our World News Editor Kate Gregan.

It's meant to be 'The Happiest Place on Earth'.

But for those visiting Shanghai Disney on Monday, it was anything but.

To comply with COVID-19 prevention measures, the amusement park suddenly shut its gates.... trapping visitors inside.  

No one could leave until they returned a negative test.

Reuters reporter Josh Horwitz was camped outside the subway station near the entrance.  

"Normally at this hour, it's about 8 pm, we would see a steady trickle of guests leaving the park and hopping on the subway to head home however, it's dead silent, hundreds of guests have been stuck inside the park for several hours."

The sudden lockdowns have seen people fleeing shops and workplaces as they try to avoid being trapped inside.

Anjalee Khemlani is Senior Health Reporter for Yahoo Finance.

She told me how these lockdowns are enforced.

"In a nutshell, the government have been basically choosing select areas where transmissions seem high. 

"So whenever there is a report of local transmission they then start a lockdown. That could be a neighbourhood, it could be an entire city, it could be half of a city. 

"It's very complex in how it's currently being done but the concept is to stay strictly on that zero COVID policy and continue to enforce that concept as they try to fight the pandemic."

Listen to Kate's World News package above.

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