When news first broke out about the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in China, a lot of people were alarmed. For one, many of them needed to know what was the sickness’s mode of transmission and if it could be contained. But when more countries started confirming COVID-19 cases, the world started to see this as a pandemic outbreak. And last March 7, the World Health Organization announced that the “confirmed cases of COVID-19 have surpassed 100, 000” mark.
Given the large number of confirmed cases, it’s safe to say that the COVID-19 scare is no laughing matter. But in this particular instance, a man from Jiangsu, China, decided to make a joke of the public’s growing concern and use the virus as an excuse to get a day off from work.
Last February 13, Zhu told his supervisors that he won’t be able to attend to work that day since he supposedly contracted the coronavirus. Changzhou Daily reports that Zhu said he got the virus at the supermarket from a woman who was among the country’s confirmed cases. Because of his statement, the company had to hold operations and 47 employees had to be quarantined.
But as the police were doing an investigation on Zhu, they found many loopholes in his story and noticed how he falsified some of his documents. Zhu then had to admit that he’d been faking the whole claim to avoid going to work.
Because of this, Zhu is now sentenced to “3-months of custody” (jail time) and six-months probation period, as reported by Sohu.com.
This story further proves why we shouldn’t be treating the COVID-19 scare as a joke.
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