“There are sporadic coronavirus outbreaks across Wuhan, but in my opinion, it is a bit extreme for this woman to protect herself like this,” he was quoted as saying.

Wang’s video clip showed the woman eating a banana before placing the banana peel into a small plastic bag she had brought with her.

“While it is not ideal to eat inside subway trains. She isolated herself from other people by wrapping herself in a plastic bag,” said Wang.

Most passengers on the train seemed not to pay extra attention to the woman. A different woman sitting beside her was focused on playing with her phone, while a man was sitting on the other side leaning against a handrail and taking a nap, Wang’s video showed.

A staffer of the city’s metro system operator told Thepaper.cn that, like other Chinese cities, it’s forbidden for passengers to eat on subway trains.

“If passengers notice people eating on trains, they can call our hotline and we will send our employees to stop the person from eating,” said an anonymous female staffer.

The incident was among the most viewed items on mainland Chinese social media, with the public divided over whether to support the woman or not.

“Is she unaware that people cannot eat on the subway? Her behaviour would be despised by anyone,” wrote one person on Douyin.

“Is this a person doing a performance art project? I cannot figure out why she wore such a large plastic bag,” another user commented.

But many people sided with the woman, speculating that she may have had a medical condition.

“I think she was experiencing low blood sugar. She put herself in the plastic bag and ate a banana inside it, so she wouldn’t affect other people. I give her two thumbs up,” a third person said.

The Wuhan-based news outlet Jimu News said: “She has not brought any negative impact to others in the public space. The public should show more tolerance to this behaviour and let other passengers who act similarly feel the society’s warmth.”