A pair of YouTube pranksters have caused concern in Sweden after footage emerged of the men coughing on Swedish people while asking for directions to the hospital.
The video was released by the YouTube channel “Alpha & Ali” on the 25th of March, but has since been deleted along with all of the other videos on the channel, which, according to YouTube, amassed 12,746 views.
The clip was subsequently reposted on Twitter by right-wing journalist Simon Kristoffersson and shows what he describes as “migrant” men purposely coughing in the direction of several people while saying they have the Wuhan coronavirus.
Kristoffersson names the two men in the video in an article for website Samhällsnytt as Ali and Hussein and claims that the men were praised in the comments of the now-deleted video.
The “prank” comes as Sweden has seen a recent surge in coronavirus cases in the last few weeks, although the Swedish Public Health Authority deemed the overall exact number of cases to be “no longer important” earlier this month.
In other countries, such as the UK, coughing or spitting on people as a threat to spread coronavirus is taken much more seriously and those who commit such acts in the UK could face up to two years in prison.
Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Max Hill QC condemned such attacks saying: “I am therefore appalled by reports of police officers and other frontline workers being deliberately coughed at by people claiming to have Covid-19.”
In France, there have also been several arrests of people spitting on or coughing on police including a man in Montpellier who was sentenced to eight months in prison after he spat on officers at a police station following his arrest for trying to steal surgical masks.
Just days later, a woman in the commune of Longjumeau was given a seven-month sentence for spitting on police and labelling them “dirty whites” and stating: “I hope you will all die of Covid.”