The coronavirus in Japan has brought not just an epidemic of infections, but also an onslaught of bullying and discrimination against the sick, their families and health workers.

When Arisa Kadono tested positive and was hospitalised in early April, she was only identified as a woman in her 20s in food business.

Soon, friends let her know that groundless rumors were circulating: that the family-run bar she helps with was a hotbed of virus; that she had dined with a popular baseball player who was infected earlier but she has never met; that she was sneaking out of the hospital and spreading the virus.

“It was as if I was a criminal,” Kadono said in an interview from her home in Himeji, western Japan, after ending her three-week hospitalisation.

Read the full AP story here.