With over 7,700 cases and 288 deaths, Spain is Europe’s second-most affected country in Europe by the coronavirus outbreak.
Portugal, which is about one-fifth the size of Spain, has so far reported 245 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus but there are over 2,200 “suspected” cases, PTI reported.
CLAIM
Now several media reports have claimed that Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo has transformed his hotels into a hospital to help those affected with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The media outlets including Dainik Bhaskar, The Hindu BusinessLine, India Today, Kenya based newspaper The Standard, published the story attributing the information to Spanish publication Marca.
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Several social media users have made the same claim on Twitter and Facebook.
We received a query about the claims being made via our WhatsApp helpline as well.
WHAT’S THE TRUTH?
Dutch TV news channel RTL Nieuws spoke to a spokesperson of Ronaldo’s hotel in Lisbon in Portugal who denied the claim that the hotel was going to be transformed into a hotel.
“We are a hotel. We are not going to be a hospital. It is a day like everyone else, we are and will remain a hotel. We are being phoned by the press,” the spokesperson told the Dutch news channel.
Further, the claims made in Marca’s reports were denied by several journalists including Kristof Terreur, correspondent at Dutch newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws and Filipe Caetano, foreign affairs editor at Portugal based channel TVI.
It is noteworthy that Marca’s tweet is not available anymore.
Also, Bosnia and Herzegovina based fact-checking website Raskrinkavanje found that the false claim originated from a Facebook page called Arena Desportiva, who, later issued a statement mentioning that their earlier post has been taken down.
The page removed the post as their source, one Paula Carvalho, communicated to them that she was led by other people.
Ronaldo has been in quarantine in Madeira after it came to light that one of his Juventus teammates, Daniele Rugani tested positive for the virus.
The 35-year-old shared a message on Twitter: "The world is going through a very difficult moment which demands the utmost care and attention from all of us.”
Evidently, reports claiming Cristiano Ronaldo transforming his hotels into hospitals amid the coronavirus outbreak are false.
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