Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

AsiaWire

This is the moment a mother afraid of catching the novel coronavirus presses a lift button by raising her leg and using her shoe.

The unnamed woman from Xi’an, capital of north-western China’s Shaanxi Province, has been warned she will be kicked out of the gated community where she lives if she risks public health again in the future.

CCTV footage taken on 14th February shows the mum entering the lift with her child at the Zhongdeng Garden City Residential District.

Residents have been pressing lift buttons using tissues or toothpicks, while others are opting for lighters and pens in order to avoid contact with any surface that might hold lingering traces of the novel coronavirus – now officially COVID-19.

However, the video shows the mum raising her right leg to mash buttons with her shoe.

She repeats the action several more times as she presses the wrong floors and has to try again.

As the video ends, the mask-wearing mum turns to the camera and appears to indicate she does
not care about being filmed by seemingly smirking before looking away again.

Mr Li, a spokesman for the management staff in the gated community, told local media: “We noticed her pressing lift buttons with her foot.

“I asked her about it, and she said she wasn’t thinking properly at the time.

“She admitted right away that it was wrong to do that.

“She’s a tenant. I warned her she would be kicked out of the residential district if she did that again.”

Mr Li said the building’s lifts have been regularly disinfected to avoid exposing residents to the novel coronavirus.

The death toll from COVID-19 has risen to 2,236 in mainland China, with 11 other deaths recorded worldwide.

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