Workers at a restaurant in the Wanda Shopping Mall in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province over the weekend. As the coronavirus outbreak eases in China, the mall is seeing more traffic. Photo: CNSphoto

A pizza restaurant owner in Heyuan, South China's Guangdong Province, was given 10 months of imprisonment after she kept her business open despite having COVID-19 symptoms, resulting in dozens of others being put into quarantine. 

The actions of the 40-year-old restaurant owner led to about 173 people being forced to undergo quarantine measures in the city and 401 others to go through medical health observation, according to the Guangdong Provincial Supreme People's Court. 

She was sentenced to 10 months because her behavior constituted the crime of hindering the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, causing a severe impact on society and triggering panic among local residents, the court said.  

The restaurant owner, surnamed Wu, should have undergone 14-day quarantine at home after she came back from Hubei Province in January, but she frequently went outside her community and gathered with others.

Before her diagnosis on February 7, the restaurant owner had been busy with her business and frequently visited her relatives and grocery stores. She said she probably made more than 200 deliveries from her pizza shop during the period, Wu told Nandu Daily. 

After her return from Hubei province, she went to hospital for physical checks after experiencing a low fever and headache. She tested positive for COVID-19 on February 7.  

The Guangdong Provincial Supreme People's Court said that if confirmed cases, suspected cases or those who refuse to receive quarantine treatment or deliberately hide their contact history cause the virus to be transmitted, this may constitute the crime of harming public security and of hindering the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.