Hubei Automobile Profiling?

Just another sign of the effect the coronavirus has on people:

The Chinese reads:

本车近一年
未去过湖北

The English translation is:

This car has not been to
Hubei for close to a year

The character 鄂 (È) on the license plate is the one-character abbreviation for Hubei.

I do wonder if there’s a story behind the owner of this car putting that sign up. What did his panicked compatriots do?

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Related: Download the COVID-19 Vocabulary PDF on this page.