January 28, 2020 | 3:38pm | Updated January 28, 2020 | 6:18pm
A wealthy jetsetter suffering from fever fled China’s coronavirus hot zone to wine and dine herself in France — but was caught when she crowed about the escape online, according to a report.
The woman boasted that she successfully bolted from the quarantined Chinese city of Wuhan by taking fever reducing medicine to evade airport screenings for the virus, the BBC reported.
She wrote on the social media site WeChat that she feared that she would miss out on her lavish trip, which included a jaunt to a Michelin-star restaurant.
“Just before I left, I had a low fever and cough. I was scared to death and rushed to eat [fever-reducing] medicine,” she wrote. “I kept on checking my temperature. Luckily I managed to get it down and my exit was smooth.”
She then posted proof of her escape: a mouth-watering meal at a top Lyon restaurant.
“Finally I can have a good meal, I feel like I’ve been starving for two days. When you are in a gourmet city of course you have to eat Michelin [food],” she wrote, according to the outlet.
News of her globetrotting, however, went viral online and reached the Chinese Embassy in Paris, which tracked her down, the outlet reported.
An airport staff member checking the temperature of a passenger at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport in Chongqing, China.
REUTERS
A subway passenger getting checked before entering a station.
REUTERS
Staff member checking passenger temperatures on board an airplane at Zhoushan City in China.
EPA
She was referred by officials to medical services, and the embassy has since confirmed that her illness was under control, according to the report.
It’s unclear whether she was tested for coronavirus. The embassy said she no longer had a fever or cough, adding that no “further examinations” were required, the BBC reported.
Around 5 million residents are estimated to have fled Wuhan before transportation ban was imposed Thursday over the epidemic, the South China Morning Post reported.
Wuhan is home to 533 confirmed cases but that number is expected to rise with around 2,700 people under observation for the illness, the report said.