Dead COVID-19 Patients in Italy? Pictures are Old & Unrelated

The visuals are not related to the novel coronavirus pandemic in Italy; they are of different incidents and old.

CLAIM

A message on Facebook is being shared online with a claim that the pictures show the condition of coronavirus patients in Italy.

The claim along with the post reads, “খুবই করুণ পরিস্থিতি ইটালির কাজের দোহাই দিয়ে বাড়ি থেকে অকারনে বেরোনোর আগে এই দৃশ্যটা একটু মাথায় রাখবেন” [Translation: So pathetic situation in Italy. Before leaving the house for work, please keep this scene in your mind.]

Many other Facebook users have also shared the visuals with the exact same claim.

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TRUE OR FALSE?

False.

We were able to confirm that these visuals are not related to the novel coronavirus pandemic in Italy. The first photo dates back to 2014 and is an art project from Germany. The second image is of a boat tragedy that happened in Italy and the last image is a film scene.

IMAGE 1

On running a reverse search on the image we received, The Quint found that it was dated to March 2014 and was a photo of an art project that had taken place in Germany’s Frankfurt.

We were also able to find the photo on Reuters’ archives.

You can read a detailed fact-check here.

IMAGE 2

On conducting a reverse image search of the photo, we came across an article titled, “Lampedusa victims include mother and baby attached by umbilical cord” by The Guardian.

The article says that around 500 African migrants died when their boat caught fire and sank around half a mile from Lampedusa Island. The article is dated 10 October 2013 and has the same image as that of the viral message.

Lampedusa victims include mother and baby attached by umbilical cord

Italian divers recovering the bodies of migrants who died in their hundreds off the coast of Lampedusa last week have said they found a baby boy still attached to his mother by the umbilical cord among the victims. As the death toll from the tragedy rose to at least 309, with seven bodies recovered on Thursday morning, rescuers spoke of their horror at discovering the pair earlier this week.

The image in the article is of the European Union delegates, including the former president of EU José Manuel Barroso, paying tribute before rows of coffins containing the bodies of Lampedusa shipwreck victims.

IMAGE 3

A reverse image search on Yandex search engine directed us to several articles about the film which carried the aforementioned image. We also came across a blog about the film with this very image.

We then looked up the trailer of the film. The viral image appears at 2 minutes 20 seconds into the video.

You can read a detailed fact-check here.

Evidently, a few unrelated images are being falsely linked to Italy amidst the growing global panic over COVID-19.

You can read all our fact-checked stories on coronavirus here.

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