Hong Kong Disneyland will be closing its gates to consumers yet again, due to the recent surge of The COVID Omicron variant. The Hong Kong local government has begun rolling out stricter COVID preventative measures in response to Omicron; theme parks, flights and other services (both travel and leisure) are now once again being shut down to prevent the virus’s rapid spread of infection. At the time of writing this, Hong Kong Disneyland will be closed from January 7th through January 20th, the nearly two-week stretch that health officials have advised for strategies of isolation and/or quarantining to be effective at slowing the spread of COVID.
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As Deadline notes, this will be the fifth closure for Hong Kong Disneyland since the COVID-19 pandemic first began in the region in late 2019/early 2020. That number also extends to the number of closures that Hong Kong itself has endured since the start of COVID; after the first case of Omicron was confirmed in the region on December 31st, the Hong Kong government immediately started efforts to curtail an outbreak with its “Zero COVID” strategy. Hong Kong has also suspended flights from eight international countries, including the US and UK. Two Chinese cities were also put on lockdown this same week, after “handfuls” of COVID cases started popping up.
The US is currently averaging upwards of 800,000+ new cases of COVID a day following the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Right now, levels of lockdown are still being determined at the local and state levels; some cities are closing schools and imposing strict mandates on masking and vaccination; other areas continue to operate without closures (or only when required by outbreaks), with nothing more than recommendations (rather than mandates) on preventing infection. So far, Disney’s US theme parks are remaining open to the public.
It’s been no secret that Disney has taken heavy losses to its revenue stream due to COVID – mostly heavily in the entertainment/leisure sector that is fueled by its theme parks. Disney parks all over the world had to close in 2020, and many struggled to re-open – and then, stay open as COVID surged and mutated into new variants like Delta and Omicron. Disney is still in the hole when it comes to year-over-year financials, and the pandemic has already forced the company to repeatedly make cuts to its leisure/entertainment division. Reports like new park closures could be an ominous sign for the 2022 financial year.
