Shanghai Disneyland visitors trapped in theme park for Covid testing

Security guards locked hand to form a perimeter around the theme park, blocking anyone from leaving

Visitors at Shanghai’s Disneyland were temporarily trapped in the theme park, with none allowed to leave until testing negative for Covid.

The closure came as part of the city’s efforts to monitor the virus among more than 400,000 people, leaving all visitors locked in and any newcomers locked out.

According to visitors, some rides were still running for those trapped inside.

The city government announced on Tuesday all guests had tested negative and were allowed to leave by 8.30pm on Monday.

Video shared by a park visitor showed a number of testing booths set up and taking throat swabs from guests.

"As soon as the test results of all tourists are completed, tourists can leave the park," said an official announcement over loudspeakers.

The park said it would offer a free dinner for visitors from a selection of restaurants, while footage also showed security guards lined up, setting a cordon to prevent anyone leaving.

Once the lockdown was lifted, visitors were seen separated into groups.

A park visitor, who goes by the name Miaomiao on the Chinese social media site 'Little Red Book', said they were prevented from leaving the park by around 10am and were asked to take Covid tests.

Even though the park was under lockdown, he said he was happy to continue on with rides that were still running.

Disney said on Monday that parts of the resort closed due to anti-virus regulations but gave no indication visitors were kept inside.

It said Shanghai Disneyland, Disneytown and Wishing Star Park were closed while two hotels were operating normally.

The impact of 'Zero Covid'

No details of a possible outbreak were released, but 1.3 million residents of the downtown Yangpu district were ordered Friday to stay at home for virus testing.

President Xi Jinping's government is sticking to a severe ‘Zero Covid’ strategy that has shut down Shanghai and other cities this year to isolate every case while other countries are easing controls.

Also on Tuesday, authorities in the southern territory of Macao were carrying out virus tests on all of its 700,000 residents after one case was found last week.

‘Zero Covid’ has kept infection rates relatively low but at a high cost as businesses struggle with repeated shutdowns.

Outbreaks in Shanghai in March led to a shutdown that confined most of its 25 million people to their homes for two months.

The city government appealed to anyone who had visited the Shanghai Disney Resort since Thursday to undergo three days of testing and avoid gathering in groups.

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