Drunk woman calls police falsely claiming her boyfriend has coronavirus because 'he failed to apologise to her'

A woman in China has called the police 16 times falsely claiming that her boyfriend was infected with the coronavirus because the man had failed to apologise to her after an argument.

The 39-year-old, known by her surname Ma, told officers in Tainjin that her boyfriend had been coughing and having fever before leaving their shared flat.

She was detained last week after admitting that she had lied to the police in order to teach her boyfriend a lesson.

The suspect said that she was acting under the influence of alcohol while calling the police.

The case was revealed by the police of Wuqing, a district of Tianjin, through their social media account on Saturday.

According to an official post, Ms Ma called the police at the Hexiwu Police Station more than a dozen times on Wednesday.

She said she had downed a large volume of distilled rice wine and argued with her boyfriend, who subsequently left home.

She claimed her partner had been coughing non-stop and sustaining high fever since the night before.

Police found her boyfriend, Mr Wang, at one of his friends' house shortly afterwards.

Mr Wang did not show any symptoms when the officers met him. The police then arranged medical checks for him and he was found to be healthy.

Ms Ma then confessed that she decided to make false accusations to seek revenge because her boyfriend had not said sorry to her and that the next day would be the Valentine's Day.

Ms Ma was detained by police on suspicion of making false claims to police and disturbing social order.

Originating in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the new coronavirus - known as COVID-19 - has infected more than 74,000 people inside China.