A maskless woman in Nebraska was caught on camera deliberately coughing on shoppers inside a grocery store despite the indoor mandate remaining in place.
The incident reportedly took place on Friday evening inside a Super Saver in Lincoln. The video, with over two million views on Twitter, shows the woman laughing while coughing at another customer at the store.
"You guys are so cute," the woman was recorded telling a shopper and her child. When asked about her mask, she said, "I have allergies. Maybe I have a medical issue. I don't need to wear a mask".
Given the spike in Covid-19 cases due to the Delta variant of the coronavirus, Lancaster County has imposed an indoor mask mandate until the end of September.
The video of harassment was first posted on Reddit by user “Jessabird,” who was with her child at the store when the woman approached asking why they were wearing masks.
“She asked if I’ve had a vaccine and said that my kid and I don’t need to wear masks because we look young and healthy. There were several other people around wearing masks but for some reason, she chose to pick on me and my kid,” Jessabird wrote.
The victim alleged that when an employee at the store intervened, the woman walked away but she followed them around the store.
“I then tried to continue my shopping but this lady followed me around the store. I told her she needs to keep her distance and that her coughing on me was assault. She laughed and kept saying: ‘Look at you, it's so cute how scared you are,’” she added.
Officials in Nebraska recently stopped publishing county-level virus-related data over privacy concerns.
Last month, a Pennsylvania woman, who pleaded guilty to coughing and spitting on food at a supermarket was sentenced to two years of jail, followed by eight years of probation.
