Story By: Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
Tourists from the Far East have been snapped walking around a popular Croatian destination with signs reading “not from China” to calm fears they could be infected with the coronavirus.
The images were taken in the streets of Sibenik, a popular tourist destination in the Dalmatia region on Croatia’s Adriatic coast.
Reports state that some local media outlets had warned a bus of Chinese tourist from Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus originated, had arrived in Croatia.
However, other tourists from the Far East decided to fight the panic surrounding tourism from the region by writing signs reading “not from China” as they walked around the town.
The photos of the smiling tourists were posted to the Facebook page ‘Dnevna Doza Prosjecnog Dalmatinca’ (Daily Dose of the Average Dalmatian).
Netizens loved the tourists’ humorous take on the situation with ‘Regina Tudor’ writing: “HAHAHAHA the next time you start to avoid them, look at the sign they are holding.”
And ‘Ivan Cesic’ wrote: “Carry a piece of paper to prevent people from avoiding you.”
‘Maja More’ added: “Ah poor Koreans. When they are all the same to us. I started to distinguish them well thanks to the coronavirus.”
One netizen said he was one of the tourists in the snaps, with ‘Yu Ju Liu’ writing: “I am the guy in this picture. I am from Taiwan. I love Europe.”
He posted the picture on his Facebook account with the caption “People are afraid of Chinese because they think Chinese has Wuhan coronavirus nowaday. People see me and they run away in Croatia. They think I am from China. So I wrote “Not from China” on the paper, and people see me and they laughed.”
There have reportedly been 4,635 cases of the deadly coronavirus which has claimed 106 lives so far.
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