A staged video of a Chinese SWAT team practicing taking down a coronavirus-infected man has gone viral online and it is making the fear of the disease only more ‘real’.
The clip is from an event staged in the Henan province, and shows a man wearing a mask driving up to a coronavirus checkpoint.
An official asks the man to step out of the car.
As the man steps out from his car, officers holding firearms and wearing hazmat suits approach him. Some, who don’t get close to the potential coronavirus patient, are simply wearing police officer uniforms.
Things get even more serious once a SWAT team member throws what seems to be a fishing net over his head and officials with riot shields restrain and drag the man away.
Right after, the SWAT team members who handled the man are sprayed down as well as the area around is drenched in what might be a disinfectant.
The footage was first posted on Chinese microblogging website Weibo and then made its way to TikTok, according to a Sky News report.
“To win the epidemic defense, Tongyang police had armed exercises,” the Weibo post caption read.
The Henan province borders the epicentre of the novel coronavirus, Hebei. Authorities in Henan are on high alert and taking steps to control the outbreak.
China’s death toll has reached 2,663 as of the end of Monday.
