Disney Shanghai Park Opens And Shuts Down Within 4 Days As China COVID-19 Woes Bite

Walt Disney Company’s (NYSE: DIS) Shanghai theme park continues to suffer due to the evolving COVID-19 situation in China.

What Happened: The Shanghai Disney Resort announced that it was temporarily closing down, starting Tuesday, and will notify guests as soon as it gets clearance for resuming operations.

Disneytown, Wishing Star Park and the two resort hotels will continue to operate normally, the company said. It also promised refunds or exchanges for all guests impacted during the period.

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Why It’s Important: The development assumes importance because Shanghai Disneyland resumed operations on Friday following nearly a month-long shutdown, which was announced abruptly.

Visitors were trapped inside the theme park then until they could return a negative test for the virus.

Ahead of that, the park remained closed for about three months amid the March-April COVID-19 outbreak, which severely impacted Shanghai. 

The theme park has been going on and offline amid the frequent outbreaks of COVID-19 in China. The government has been strict with its “zero COVID” policy, which has required companies to either shut down operations or work under a closed-loop system.

For Disney, these frequent park closures could prove a setback, as it strives to make a strong comeback under CEO Bob Iger, who was reinstated recently.

Disney closed Monday’s session down 3.22% at $95.69, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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