A Chinese woman who took anti-inflammatory drugs to hide her Covid-19 symptoms on a flight from the US to China last March was sent to prison by a Beijing court for obstructing the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.
A sentence of one year behind bars and one year’s probation was handed to Li Na back in October, but the verdict was made public just recently, making headlines in the Chinese media on Tuesday.
The woman’s behavior violated the anti-epidemic rules of the Chinese customs and civil aviation departments, posing a “severe risk” of spreading the coronavirus, the People’s Court in Beijing’s Shunyi District said in its ruling.
Li had been living in Massachusetts for the last few years, working for US pharma company, Biogen. But, like many of her compatriots, she chose to return to China during the pandemic, apparently believing that the local authorities would be more effective at stopping the disease than their Western counterparts.