More than 70,000 tourists exit Hainan

A total of 70,815 stranded tourists have returned home from epidemic-stricken Hainan province, as flights from major local airports return to normal and as coordination between the province and cities on the Chinese mainland ensures their prompt exit, local authorities said.

As of 6 am on Wednesday, 471 flights had been arranged since Aug 9, and thousands of tourists made their way home from Haikou and Sanya. The COVID-19 outbreak was first reported on Aug 1.

Meanwhile, 730 cars and 2,899 passengers left Haikou by ship, Chen Shaoshi, deputy director of the Hainan Health Commission said at a news conference in Haikou on Wednesday.

The outbreak had stranded about 150,000 tourists on the island.

Chen said that as of Tuesday the number of confirmed and asymptomatic cases in Hainan had risen to 5,298 and 6,457, respectively, since Aug 1. Sanya registered 3,976 confirmed case and 5,287 asymptomatic carriers.

The island saw a rise of infections on Tuesday, mainly concentrated in a few areas where the outbreak is still expanding. The prevention and control situation remains severe and complex in Sanya and Ledong, which saw significant increases in infections over the confirmed figure registered on Monday, Chen said.

As of 6 am on Wednesday, 239 patients had recovered. They were discharged from hospitals. Currently, there are 12,041 inpatients, including five in critical condition, eight in severe condition, 99 in less severe condition, 4,227 with mild symptoms, 6,544 asymptomatic carriers and 1,158 unclassified patients, local officials said.

As of Tuesday, Hainan had opened 239 sites for isolation, providing 26,103 isolation rooms. The province is building more makeshift hospitals in Sanya and Haikou, and a contact mechanism has been established for both regular and makeshift hospitals to ensure the smooth transfer of patients in severe condition, officials said at the briefing.

The Sanya city government issued a notice on Wednesday, saying that it had requisitioned 33 hotels for accommodation of people who need centralized isolation. Guests currently staying in the hotels must check out before 2 pm on Thursday with transfer help provided in accordance with current epidemic prevention and control policies.