Medical workers take swab samples from citizens for nucleic acid testing in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, Aug. 7, 2022. Prevention and control measures have been taken in Sanya to fight against the new resurgence of COVID-19 in the city. Photo: Xinhua

More than 2,000 tourists stranded in Sanya, a tourism resort in South China's Hainan Province due to a latest COVID-19 resurgence have flown back home. Their departure comes at a time when the city reported 1,254 new cases on Thursday.

As of 4 am on Thursday, Sanya has assisted 2,156 stranded tourists to leave the city on 14 flights, an official from Sanya said during a press conference.

Media reports showed the first batch of 125 stranded tourists flew back to Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Tuesday afternoon.

Starting from Wednesday morning, Hainan opened the application channel for leaving the island by displaying green health code. The application opens to tourists from regions and hotels that have not found any COVID-19 cases in the past seven days.

In the past 24 hours on Wednesday, Sanya reported 1,254 new cases, of which 480 are newly confirmed cases and 774 asymptomatic cases. Between August 1 and August 10, the city has found a total of 1,690 confirmed cases and 1,504 asymptomatic cases.

An official from Sanya told Thursday's press conference stated that though the daily new cases on Wednesday rose, they are all screened out before they demonstrated COVID-19 symptoms, assuring the public not to be panic.

The city has imposed a temporary static management since August 6. One day after that, all the flights in and out of Sanya were canceled.

Currently, some 32,000 tourists are stranded in Sanya. To settle stranded tourists, the city had assured at Saturday's press briefing that local hotel will offer 50 percent discount for guests that are staying.

Global Times