SOME stranded tourists in South China’s Hainan Province who meet epidemic prevention requirements will be allowed to leave the island in batches, CGTN reported yesterday, citing the local COVID-19 response team.

Zhou Changqiang, head of the Hainan Provincial Health Commission, said that as of Sunday midnight, Hainan had about 177,900 tourists. Among them, some 57,000 remain in Sanya, with 43,000 people staying in hotels.

“Hainan is working with the State Council joint prevention and control working group to further optimize the arrangements for tourists to leave the island province,” Zhou was quoted as saying via China Media Group.

“We are considering a plan to let tourists in areas that have not been affected by the epidemic leave the island with two nucleic acid negative certificates within 48 hours; while those in low-risk areas are expected to start their return journey with three nucleic acid negative certificates within 72 hours and a screening to make sure they don’t have any symptoms of being infected,” said Zhou.

He added that strict closed-loop management will be arranged for these tourists back home. Proper measures will also be implemented for those staying in high-risk areas.

As of Monday midnight, the province had registered 1,282 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 577 asymptomatic infections since the first case was reported in Sanya on Aug. 1. The new outbreak has so far affected 13 cities and counties across the island, according to the Hainan Provincial Health Commission.

More than 8,500 people from 18 provinces across China have been organized to help Hainan in fighting the latest COVID-19 outbreak, the provincial COVID-19 prevention and control headquarters said. As of 7 a.m. Monday, Hainan has designated 250 areas as high-risk for COVID-19 and 145 as medium-risk.

Meanwhile, equipment capable of detecting 1.15 million tubes of nucleic acid samples per day has already been transported to Hainan.

Authorities in Sanya is moving fast to cater to the needs of the stranded tourists after the sudden COVID-19 cluster outbreak.

“Hello, please have some fresh fruit, and we wish that you have a nice day!” At Howard Johnson Resort Sanya Bay, a five-star hotel, volunteers knock on doors to deliver fruits to stranded airport passengers.

“No one wants this to happen,” said Sun Jingjing from Henan Province. “But it’s best to stay put and follow the local quarantine policy.”

Sun is among more than 3,000 tourists stranded as their flights were canceled under the static management. They were later arranged by local authorities to temporarily settle down in 11 hotels for a week in Sanya.

Zhu Ruoyu, general manager of the hotel, said tourists came to enjoy a holiday, and no one wants to deal with the realities of the outbreak. “So we try to be more considerate in service and respond timely to their inquiries,” said Zhu.

This is the first time for Anastasia Rochelle Naidoo, a native of South Africa, to visit Sanya.

“I think generally, especially with this hotel, things have been handled quite well and they’ve been very helpful. So we’re just going with the flow,” said Naidoo, adding that the government is acting fast, too.

(CGTN, China Daily, Xinhua)