As India is witnessing a surge in coronavirus cases, a bulletin being massively shared on WhatsApp claims that the World Health Organization (WHO) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have warned India that the country will witness 50,000 deaths by 15 April.
However, the WHO has denied making any such claim and called the viral video “fake news.”
CLAIM
The viral video carries the logo of ‘News 24 Live’ and the narrator mentions: “The next 72-108 hours may prove to be problematic for India. Over 50,000 deaths may happen. WHO, ICMR has warned India. WHO, ICMR have said that if Indians do not improve in 20 hours, the country will enter third stage ie community transmission at 11 pm tomorrow. If Indian enters third stage, then India may witness nearly 50,000 deaths by 15 April.”
The Quint received multiple queries on the claim made in the viral video on its WhatsApp tipline.
WHAT WE FOUND
We couldn’t find any news channel that carried the same logo and the name as seen in the viral bulletin.
Further, the official Twitter handle of WHO South-East Asia stated that the video claiming that the organisation has warned of 50,000 COVID-19 deaths by 15 April in India is “FAKE NEWS.”
At the end of the bulletin, the narrator urges people to share the video with friends and family, however, the bulletin only mentions ‘share’ and there is no link to the channel’s social media accounts.
On Tuesday, 6 April, India reported 96,982 new COVID-19 cases with 50,143 people being discharged, and 446 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. As many as 1,65,547 people have died so far due to coronavirus in India.
Evidently, the viral bulletin falsely claimed that the World Health Organization has warned India that the country will witness 50,000 deaths due to coronavirus by 15 April.
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