TEHRAN – A coffee shop in the Chinese city of Wuhan has appreciated its 29-year-old Iranian employee, Sina Karami, for his commitment to stay in the city and help people during the coronavirus outbreak.

He turned down an offer to return to his home country on a chartered flight, saying: “Consider myself Chinese now, and I will stay here. Like the Wuhan locals, this is my home now, and I will be with the people of China.”

"When the outbreak of the new coronavirus started, we asked ourselves what we should do in these circumstances, then we decided to stay together and do our best to give everything we can to anyone who needs help, like doctors and nurses in the city," Karami told Xinhua.

While most businesses remain closed in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, the cafe named Wakanda Youth Coffee is running at full capacity. Seven baristas race against the clock to prepare some 500 cups of coffee each day and deliver them to three hospitals free of charge, according to alugy.com.

The owner of the coffee shop issued a call to the shop’s 21 employees to resume their work. To her surprise, all six baristas who had stayed in Wuhan agreed to her proposal, including Sina Karami. 

Iran's Ambassador to China, Mohammad Keshavarzadeh, wrote on his Twitter account on Monday that “Remember Sina Karami, the brave boy who stayed in Wuhan. Now Wakanda coffee shop donated 34,000 face masks and wrote on it: “Sina, when we were in difficult conditions you did not leave but stood up and helped. Now that your motherland, Iran, is in dire straits, we will not leave you and your country alone.”

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