Foreign Policy

‘Avoiding us like we are the virus’: Fear of coronavirus plagues Chinese sex workers

By Joel Gehrke
Published February 4, 2020 7:41pm ET
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‘Avoiding us like we are the virus’: Fear of coronavirus plagues Chinese sex workers
Medical workers in protective suits move a coronavirus patient into an isolation ward at the Second People's Hospital in Fuyang in central China's Anhui Province, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2020. The death toll in China's virus outbreak rose to 259 on Saturday and Beijing criticized Washington's tightening of travel controls to bar most foreign nationals who visited the country within the past two weeks. | (Chinatopix via AP)

Coronavirus fears are undercutting business for Chinese sex workers overseas as alarm over the risks of infection have spread even in countries that have restricted travel to mainland China.

“I don’t mention that I am Chinese any more and I offer a big discount, but clients are avoiding us like we are the virus,” one Chinese woman in New Zealand told the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based media outlet.

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China COVID-19 Health New Zealand Prostitution