Shanghai cuts tourism trips

THE eastern Chinese financial hub of Shanghai suspended some tourism activities on Friday as part of its efforts to head off a handful of sporadic new local transmissions, while it also faces an increase in Covid-19 infections from overseas.

Shanghai’s tourism and culture authority said travel agencies and online tourism companies must once again halt organising group tours between Shanghai and other provinces, regions or municipalities, after the city reported five new domestically transmitted infections on Thursday, all linked to a previous arrival from overseas.

The order, in line with a national guideline to cut tourist activities in provincial divisions where new infections have emerged, came less than a month after Shanghai lifted a previous suspension that had come into effect in November, according to local government statements and a report by a newspaper managed by China’s tourism authority.

The risk of the virus entering from overseas has increased in Shanghai, with new imported cases during the first 10 days of this month already exceeding December’s total, according to Reuters calculations. It is unclear how many were caused by the Omicron variant. — Reuters