COVID-19: Woman Jailed For Hiding Symptoms

A Chinese court has handed down a year-long prison sentence to a woman who hid her Coronavirus symptoms before boarding a flight, state media reported on Wednesday.

The 37-year-old took medication to suppress a fever before boarding a flight from the United States to China in March 2020, the Global Times reported.

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She only disclosed her symptoms after landing in Beijing and later tested positive for coronavirus.

Some 63 close contacts then had to go into quarantine.

Her actions were a violation of China’s anti-epidemic rules and posed a severe risk of spreading the virus, according to a Beijing court ruling from in October 2020 cited by Global Times.

She was sentenced to one year in prison and one year’s probation for the crime of obstructing the prevention of infectious diseases.

China has some of the strictest coronavirus restrictions in the world.

The country has had the pandemic largely under control since early summer of 2020.

75 new cases of infection were reported across China as of Wednesday.