CHINA. In an ever-changing situation, Haikou duty free retailers will shut down again tomorrow (22 August) for one day as the authorities continue to battle a concerning COVID outbreak on the island province.
As reported, stores in Haikou reopened on Friday 19 August after their previous closure due to the crisis. They are operated by China Duty Free Group and GDF Plaza, both in Mova Mall, and Times DF (Shenzhen Duty-Free Group/DFS Group) in Mission Hills.
The Haikou stores had closed on 17 August just a day after reopening. This continued a stop-start pattern that had seen the capital city’s retailers forced to first shut their offline operations on 8 August before being allowed to reopen the next day but then close again on 10 August.
Meanwhile, duty free stores in Sanya remain closed into a third week as new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in and around the southern city remain worryingly high.
The CNSC and HTDF stores in Sanya City shut on 4 August and the vast China Duty Free Group (CDF Mall/Sanya International Duty Free Shopping Complex) a day later. They have remained shuttered since though online business continues.
Retailers across the island – and their brand partners – are anxiously monitoring the situation in the hope that the crisis will blow over by early September. The Golden Week holidays run from 1 to 7 October with sales traditionally soaring in the last week of September. However with such uncertainly over the COVID situation, many prospective holidaymakers are likely to leave their booking decisions late.
“We are all are praying that this will get over soon. The world needs to go back to normal,” one source told The Moodie Davitt Report.
The National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China today reported that there were 440 confirmed locally transmitted new cases in Hainan province yesterday, out of a total 553 indigenous cases across Mainland China.
But that number excludes asymptomatic cases and Sanya remains the epicentre of the crisis. “There are 800 cases for Sanya only, including confirmed ones and no-symptoms [asymptomatic],” a Sanya retail executive told us this morning local time. “So it is still a high-risk situation now.”
New locally transmitted infections in Hainan over recent days (excludes asymptomatic cases)
20 August: 440
19 August: 469
18 August: 441
17 August: 496
16 August: 482
15 August: 426
14 August: 582
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