Filipino mistaken for Chinese gets into brawl in Italy amid COVID-19 outbreak — report
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A man involved in a scuffle at a supermarket in Italy insisted that he was Filipino and not Chinese, as seen in a YouTube video posted on Wednesday, Feb. 26.
The video, shared by one J LAV, shows two men yelling at each other, with the taller one landing a punch on the smaller man. It appears that the taller man shouts repeatedly, “I’m Filipino, I’m not Chinese,” as per International Business Times Singapore on Wednesday.
The brawl took place in the town of Casalpusterlengo, one of the 11 towns on lockdown in Italy as the country grapples with the COVID-19 outbreak.
Outside of Asia, Italy has the highest number of novel coronavirus cases. Italy has 1,128 cases and 29 deaths as of yesterday, March 1.
As novel coronavirus cases spike, Asians in Italy face discrimination and violence. A 31-year-old Filipino was hospitalized after he said that a group of young men attacked him when they thought he was Chinese, as per Al Jazeera on Feb. 18.
No Filipinos have been infected with COVID-19 in Italy, Iran and South Korea, according to a report today, March 2. Niña V. Guno/JB
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