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For many people, the COVID-19 pandemic may seem like a distant memory. In the United States, most places no longer have face mask requirements, many do not require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID result, and crowds are no longer being kept to a minimum. However, COVID is still prevalent — even with the availability of vaccines — and one Disney Resort had to deal with that in an unexpected way.
Credit: Disney
On October 31, Shanghai Disneyland announced that it was pausing operations and closing its gates — with Guests in the Park. The Resort announced that the closure was due to COVID concerns. All Guests in the Park were required to take a COVID test and could not leave until the results of those tests came back negative.
Credit: Shanghai Disney
In addition to the immediate closure, it was also announced that anyone who had visited Shanghai Disneyland since October 27 would be required to get a COVID test and could wait no longer than three days to take their test.
Here is more information on the shocking closure from Yahoo News:
The resort said at 11:39 a.m. local time (03:39 GMT) it would immediately shut the main theme park and surrounding areas including its shopping street until further notice to comply with virus curbs.
The Shanghai government said on its official WeChat account the park was barring people from entering or exiting and that all visitors inside the site would need to await the results of their tests before they could leave…
Neither the Shanghai government nor the Disney resort gave further details. The resort had on Saturday said that it had started operating with a reduced workforce to comply with COVID measures.
The theme park continued to operate rides for visitors stuck in the park during the closure on Monday, social media users reported…
Videos circulating on China’s Weibo platform on Monday showed people rushing to the park’s gates, which were already locked.
Reuters was not able to verify the authenticity of the videos and the Shanghai Disney Resort did not immediately reply to a request for further comment on how many visitors were inside.
Credit: Shanghai Disneyland
This is not the first time that Shanghai Disneyland has closed its gates with Guests inside. In November 2021, Shanghai Disney closed and all 30,000 Guests inside the Park were required to be tested for COVID as part of a contact tracing exercise. Throughout the course of the pandemic, Shanghai Disneyland has been required to close several times.
