China finds more COVID cases after locking down beach resort

BEIJING (AP) — Another 259 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan. Some 80,000 tourists have been stranded there by pandemic restrictions. Overall, China on Monday reported 324 new locally transmitted cases, along with 483 asymptomatic cases, which China classifies separately. Authorities declared Hainan’s beach resort city Sanya a COVID-19 hot spot Saturday and imposed a lockdown, confining Chinese citizens and expatriates to their hotels on what they had hoped would be a holiday from tight restrictions imposed around much of China. Tourists wanting to depart Sanya have to test negative for the coronavirus on five PCR tests over seven days. China has stuck steadfastly to a “zero-COVID” approach, despite the economic and social costs.