Chinese province closes tourist sites following virus cases
BEIJING (AP) - A northwestern Chinese province heavily dependent on tourism closed all tourist sites Monday after finding new COVID-19 cases.
Gansu province lies along the ancient Silk Road and is famed for the Dunhuang grottoes filled with Buddhist images and other religious sites.
The National Health Commission said 35 new cases of local transmission had been detected over the past 24 hours, four of them in Gansu.
Another 19 cases were found in the Inner Mongolia region, with others spread across several provinces and cities. Residents in parts of Inner Mongolia have been ordered to stay indoors.
Despite having largely stamped out cases of local infection, China maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward the pandemic, characterized by lockdowns, quarantines and compulsory testing for the virus.
The spread of the delta variant by travelers and tour groups is of particular concern ahead of the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February. Overseas spectators already are banned, and participants will have to stay in a bubble separating them from people outside.
A group of women wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus use their smartphone to make appointment as residents line up to receive booster shots against COVID-19 at a vaccination site near a residential area in Beijing, Friday, Oct. 22, 2021. China's capital Beijing has begun offering booster shots against COVID-19, four months before the city and surrounding regions are to host the Winter Olympics. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Authorities in the capital said on Sunday people arriving from places with recent infections would need to show a negative virus test result and give regular health reports.
Children wearing face masks to help protect from the coronavirus play on the swing machines at a shopping mall in Beijing, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
A woman wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walks by a mural along a street in Beijing, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
A vendor wearing a face mask to help protect from the coronavirus make cotton candy for his customers during a foods carnival at a shopping mall in Beijing, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
A woman wearing a face mask to help protect from the coronavirus rides on a toy car with a child at a shopping mall in Beijing, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
