By Elishya Perera
(CWBN)_It’s Golden Week, an eight-day national holiday which began on 1st October, marking the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. In response to stamping out Covid-19, hundreds of millions of people in China went on vacation at the same time, in stark contrast to the rest of the world.
According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in just the first four days of the week-long holiday, around 425 million people have travelled domestically, with no virus tests or social distancing. “We have seen more tourists this year than in previous years. The number of daily tourists has doubled since we exempted the entrance fee,” said an employee at Wuhan’s Yellow Crane Tower attraction last week. Photos of the Great Wall of China last week showed massive crowds crammed together, most of them wearing face masks, while a number of people had pulled their masks down to their chin, and a few not wearing masks at all.
While the Coronavirus emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, the country has not reported any local virus infections since mid August. Since then the government has eased almost all travel restrictions and China opened its borders to foreign nationals holding valid residence permits in late September. In a notice issued by a government agency that manages the Great Wall, required visitors to follow restrictions including one meter social distancing and wearing of face masks, neither of which was followed this week.
However, the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center of Disease Control and Prevention, Wu Zunyou stated, “We have gone at least six weeks without reporting a single confirmed case domestically, which means the environment accessible by ordinary people is virus free. The chance of you running into an asymptomatic person is very low, almost negligible”.
