Shanghai Disneyland Locked in Over 30,000 Guests After Single COVID-19 Infection Reported

A day at the theme park quickly turned into an extremely stressful situation for more than 30,000 people on Sunday, as they were locked inside Shanghai Disneyland after a positive COVID-19 test. Shanghai Disneyland is Disney’s second-largest park in the world and its Magic Kingdom was filled with guests on Sunday. When just one guest who visited the day before tested positive for COVID-19, however, the entire park was put on lockdown, with all of the patrons still inside.

According to reports from the Chinese-based park, every single guest was required to take a COVID-19 test and get a negative result before they were allowed to leave the park. This led to seemingly endless lines for nasal swabs as guests got anxious to leave and cast members worked to test everyone. 

China has been keeping policies as tight as possible in an effort to take a “COVID Zero” approach to this stage of the pandemic. While it is harder to control the spread of COVID now thanks to the delta variant, China is attempting to isolate any case at soon as it happens. That means just one case can result in 30,000 people being contained in one area, in the hopes that any potential positive cases would be kept away from the rest of the country.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the last guest exited the park at 10:30 pm — the scheduled closing time for the park on Sunday was 9:30 pm. Cast members at the park also needed to be tested before they could head exit. Once the park was cleared, Shanghai Disneyland announced that it would be closed until Wednesday, along with its surrounding shopping and hospitality areas.

The lockdown occurred after a woman who visited Disneyland on Saturday found out that she had been in close contact with someone who received a positive COVID-19 test. She was on a train when she got the news and immediately disembarked to get tested. She received her positive test on Sunday. None of the people who were tested at Disneyland during the lockdown received a positive result, according to statements from the Chinese government.

Shanghai Disneyland will reopen operations on Wednesday. Both of Disney’s parks in the United States — Disneyland and Walt Disney World — remain operational.