On Wednesday morning, 177 tourists boarded a cruise ship at Weizhou Island , a famous scenic spot of Beihai in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and headed for their home after stranded for several days due to the latest outbreak of COVID-19 in the city.

Buses were waiting on the wharf to transfer the tourists to railway station in a closed-loop management and offered necessary guidance to those who needed to leave in their personal vehicles.

Around 2,000 tourists in total have been stranded in Beihai since the COVID-19 broke out in the city on July 12.

All of the city's A-class tourist attractions, including Weizhou Island, have stopped receiving tourists since July 14.

A special panel has been set up to deal with the problems that the stranded tourists face.

By Wednesday, all the tourists at Weizhou Island whose health code was green and needed to return home returned.

Tourists expressed their gratitude to the active response of the Beihai government.

A tourist surnamed Li from Henan province was a little excited about the return: "My family came to Weizhou Island for vacation. We never expected to see the outbreak of the epidemic in Beihai. Thanks to the help of Beihai's government, we finally are able to go home."

On Wednesday, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region reported 52 new local confirmed cases, all in Beihai, and 135 new asymptomatic carriers, 131 of them in Beihai, according to the region's health authorities .

"The latest outbreak of COVID-19 in Beihai so far is well controlled and we are not facing social transmisson risk of the pandemic," said Li Yongqiang, deputy director of the region's health commission, on Thursday. On the same day, a total of 9 reported cases were discharged from hospitals after recovery and 19 asymptomatic carriers discharged from medical observation.

Chang Shanghui contributed to the story.