THE rampant spread of Omicron BA5.1.3 variant that firstly reported in Sanya in South China’s Hainan has unfolded within the province, triggering at least three more cities to close their residential compounds and halt their public transportation in a bid to cut off the fast transmission chain, Global Times reported yesterday.

From Aug. 1 to yesterday, the province registered 1,140 COVID-19 cases, of which 971 cases are in Sanya and the rest cases spread across 10 other cities or counties in the province.

Following the steps of Sanya, Wanning, Danzhou, and Lingshui are the recent cities that announced they will impose the city into temporary static management starting from yesterday. The move comes with local residents staying indoors and public transportation suspended.

The Chinese mainland reported Saturday 337 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 297 were in Hainan, Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday, citing the National Health Commission.

All the flights in and out of Sanya were canceled yesterday, one day after the city announced temporary static management.

A citywide lockdown was imposed 6 a.m. Saturday. While services for basic social operations, epidemic prevention and control and emergencies are fully guaranteed, public movement is now under strict control and all public transportation services have been suspended.

Hainan is rolling out province-scale mass nucleic acid testing. Supporting teams with the State Council’s joint prevention and control mechanism are arriving in Hainan from Guangdong, Sichuan, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Jiangxi to help cope with the developing situation in the island province, China Daily reported.

To calm down stranded tourists, Sanya official had assured at Saturday’s press briefing that local hotel will offer 50% discount for guests that are staying.

However, some staying visitors complained on social media like www.toutiao.com about some hotels having doubled the room price before the discount. Some said their hotels refused to give the discount.

(Global Times, China Daily, Xinhua)