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

AsiaWire

This is the moment a persistent Chinese official refuses to let a woman into a quarantined building and stands in front of a metal gate as she repeatedly slaps and kicks him.

Ji Xiyang, who is secretary of the Zhangjiadian Community in the locked-down city of Yichang in Central China’s Hubei Province, had been volunteering at a coronavirus checkpoint in front of the residential block when the incident took place on 19th February.

In the video, Mr Ji and another female volunteer can be seen refusing entry to the woman identified by police as Ms Tian, 32.

Ms Tian had keys to the residential block but did not live there. She claimed she needed to access the quarantined building in order to return the keys, reports said.

According to the authorities, however, Ms Tian did not have a pass from local disease-prevention officials which would have allowed her to enter the building during the emergency period.

Mr Ji can be seen blocking the metal gate and not retaliating as Ms Tian repeatedly slaps him on the face.

As Ms Tian yells loudly in the official’s face, she also kicks him as well as his female member of staff as the pair try to persuade the woman to turn back.

Yichang police summoned Ms Tian and detained her on obstruction of justice charges.

But it was unclear whether she had already been given a detention sentence, or whether she would serve her punishment retrospectively after the city’s lockdown order ends.

The city of Yichang and 11 other urban centres were put on full lockdown on 24 January, less than a day after travel restrictions were placed on COVID-19 epicentre Wuhan.

Nearly 60 million people are now restricted from leaving the province of Hubei as the lockdown enters its second month.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the novel coronavirus has risen to 2,592 in mainland China and 2,620 including other territories.

Nearly 80,000 cases of the highly infectious respiratory disease have been recorded worldwide.

The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.