Chinese woman ‘bragged on social media about cheating airport coronavirus screenings’ – before being tracked down to France after posting from a Michelin Star restaurant in Lyon
- Woman boasted on Chinese site WeChat that she’d been suffering from a fever
- Claims she slipped past airport tests in outbreak epicentre by taking drugs
- Posted pic from Lyon with caption: ‘Finally a good meal, I’ve been starving days’
By Connor Boyd and Harry Howard For Mailonline :
: (EST,) (January)
: : (EST,) (January)
A Chinese woman who bragged about cheating airport coronavirus screenings in the outbreak’s epicentre has been tracked down in France.
The woman boasted on Chinese site WeChat that she’d been suffering from a fever but took tablets to mask her symptoms so she could fly from Wuhan.
She later posted photos of herself apparently dining at a Michelin star restaurant in Lyon with family.
Her post sparked outrage online and the Chinese embassy in Paris was bombarded with phonecalls and emails, it said.
The Chinese embassy in France has tracked down a woman who bragged about avoiding airport screening for the coronavirus. She uploaded these photos to Chinese social media site WeChat
Fine dining: The woman uploaded images of her posh meals after flying to Lyon from Wuhan, where coronavirus was first detected in late December
‘Finally I can have a good meal, I feel like I’ve been starving for two days,’ the woman reportedly wrote
She had left the city of Wuhan, in China’s Hubei province, where the killer virus was first detected in late December. It’s not clear exactly when she left China.
‘Just before I left, I had a low fever and cough. I was scared to death and rushed to eat [fever-reducing] medicine, ‘the woman tweeted, according to the BBC.
‘I kept on checking my temperature. Luckily I managed to get it down and my exit was smooth. ‘
Officials had temperature scanners in operation at the time she was flying, refusing to allow anybody with signs of a fever from boarding the flight.
The woman said that she had used anti-fever medicine to keep her temperature down. She then documented her journey to Lyon on WeChat.
Health officials use an infrared thermometer on a traveler at a health screening checkpoint at Wuhan before the city went into lockdown on Thursday
more than
People have now been infected with the virus and have been killed. The spread of it has increased rapidly since the virus was first seen in patients in December Experts say the difficulty of containing the coronavirus is that so many patients have mild, cold-like symptoms and don’t realise they have the infection – but it can quickly turn deadly
After landing, she uploaded a series of photographs of what looked like her and her family dining at the plush restaurant in Lyon. She also posted images of her meals.
‘Finally I can have a good meal, I feel like I’ve been starving for two days. When you are in a gourmet city of course you have to eat Michelin [food], ‘she wrote, according to the BBC.
‘Just before I left, I had a low fever and cough. I was scared to death and rushed to eat [fever-reducing] medicine. I kept on checking my temperature. Luckily I managed to get it down and my exit was smooth. ‘
Her post went viral and she was criticized by other social media users. The Chinese embassy in Paris said it had received calls and emails about the woman.
told French media it would remain in touch with the woman and update them on any developments.
It added that she did not require ‘further examinations’ at this point.
Coronavirus has spread to countries as far as South Korea, Japan and the US. China has quarantined more than 90 million people in cities all within Hubei province.
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