With the growing spread of coronavirus now officially considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization, governments generally aren’t playing games with public health.
Especially given the situation in Italy, Europe has seen increasing efforts to clamp down and prevent the spread of the virus.
And citizens are being asked to do their part in the efforts as well.
Failing to do so has landed one Belgian man on the wrong side of the law after video of his disgusting behavior went, well, viral.
The unidentified Belgian man is now under arrest.
This was because he pulled down a face mask, licked his fingers, and wiped them on a subway’s handrail.
Although it’s unclear if the man was ill, he was wearing a face mask in the video, and he pulled it down before licking his fingers.
Considering that face mask usage is only recommended for those who are actually sick, concerns regarding his infection status would not be unreasonable.
A couple of the man’s fellow commuters happened to be taking a video at the time, likely because the man appeared to be inebriated.
One of the commuters, who goes by @SoufOff on Twitter, captioned their video “Watch what this sob does to the handrails on public transport. Don’t touch the handrails!”
After posting the video on Twitter, it quickly spread around.
Transportation authorities responded to the post, saying that the man had indeed been intoxicated and had been arrested.
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They were clearly taking the matter seriously.
“The man (in a state of inebriation) was stopped by police and by our security services,” the authorities wrote, according to The Brussels Times .
The transportation authority added that the subway car in question had been pulled out of service to be cleaned and disinfected.
“Our metros are cleaned every day,” they added.
Belgium has seen 399 confirmed cases and three deaths from COVID-19 to date .
h/t: The Brussels Times
