A woman was forced to quarantine overnight in a hotpot restaurant after a COVID-19 case was discovered there. She said she was treated to free food all night.

• A woman surnamed Wang was quarantined in a hotpot restaurant after a COVID case was found there.
• She could have escaped quarantine if she left the restaurant just a minute earlier, she told Orient Today.

Authorities forced dozens to quarantine overnight in a Chinese hotpot restaurant after a COVID-19 case was detected at the location — and the story of one woman's near-escape from the ordeal has gone viral on Weibo.

According to Henan Province news outlet Orient Today, a woman surnamed Wang was enjoying a late dinner at a hotpot restaurant with some friends in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou on March 18.

Her friends took off first, but by the time she got up from the table a few minutes later, she was told the eatery was being locked down immediately because a COVID case had been discovered.

"If I had just left the place one minute earlier, I would have been able to leave," she told Orient Today, adding there were around 30 other guests caught in the same situation. "I was just a minute too late."

It wasn't a completely terrible experience, though, she said.

"The restaurant kept feeding us free food. At 3 a.m., they made us noodles, and in the morning, they stir-fried some dishes. We could order anything we wanted for hotpot too — I ordered octopus, beef, and noodles," Wang told the outlet. "I ate until I couldn't move."

Her story went viral on China's Twitter-like platform Weibo, with the hashtag "woman quarantined in hotpot restaurant after leaving one minute later," receiving more than 420 million views.

Social media users joked that a hotpot restaurant is one of the better places to be quarantined. "If I had to be quarantined, I guess a hotpot restaurant is not so bad. Or maybe a public bathhouse," one Weibo user said.

Wang was allowed to leave the restaurant the next day, but authorities advised her to isolate at home for another 13 days, per Beijing Youth Daily.

In recent months, China has seen a nationwide surge of COVID cases, with tens of millions of people in strict lockdowns as officials continue to pursue a "dynamic zero COVID policy." That means rapid lockdowns, mass testing, and travel restrictions whenever clusters emerge.

Surprise lockdowns are not entirely uncommon. In January, Beijing locked down an entire office building after a case of Omicron was detected there. Healthcare workers brought in blankets and pillows, and employees were forced to spend the night in their cubicles. In March, Shanghai Tower, the world's second-tallest building with 128 floors, was put in an emergency lockdown after COVID was detected there and workers were forced to spend the night, too.