CCTV footage of a young woman collapsing in a supermarket in Malayasia is being falsely linked to the deadly Coronavirus. The video shows the woman walking around the aisle of a supermarket and looking at the products on display. Moments later, she holds her head and collapses on the aisle.
The video is doing the rounds with a caption that can raise panic among netizens regarding the deadly pathogen. "This is coronavirus, coronavirus attack her and she dead in 2 minits ,now coronavirus have China,india, malaysia, Singapore. ples everybody careful."
In another Facebook post, the clip has been identified to be an incident from Singapore. It has been captioned as, "Today Singapore one people die for corona virus. Friends see this video after u understand ready how dangerous this virus." The caption further states in Bengali that the video has raised an alarm among netizens because even smaller countries are being infected. (Original text in Bengali: মনে ভয় ঢুকে পড়েছে ছোট্ট দেশ যে কোন সময়ে আক্রান্ত করতে পারে... Share korben plzz ( সবাইকে দেখার সুযোগ করে দিন)
The Coronavirus is believed to have originated in China's Wuhan. The death toll has risen to 170, with a confirmed case in Tibet now, reports the BBC. More than 7700 people have been infected so far. The Coronavirus has triggered panic across nations, with multiple airlines suspending flights to China and adopting swift precautionary measures to stay safe.
The first case of Coronavirus was found positive in Kerala on January 30. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued a press release which stated that a student studying in China's Wuhan University had tested positive of the Novel Coronavirus.
Fact Check
BOOM broke the video into its key frames and ran a reverse image search. We were directed to a Malaysian news report that featured a screenshot from the video. According to the news report, the mother of the deceased rubbished claims that her daughter died after being infected by the Coronavirus, after the same footage was viral in Malaysia.
The incident happened in Klang area of Malaysia on January 26, where a 20-year-old woman, Nur Izzah Izzati, died while shopping at a departmental store. The family denied that the Coronavirus was the cause of her death.
BOOM reached out to a relative of Izzati, who corroborated the same. According to Hafiz Russidah, Izzati collapsed due to heart failure and not an infection caused by the virus. He stated the same in a Facebook post, where Russidah urged netizens to not share the video in the context of the Coronavirus.
The official Twitter handle for Ministry of Health, Malaysia, tweeted urging netizens to not share the video with a Coronavirus narrative.
Furthermore, Izzati's friend shared reports about the cause of her death and how the CCTV footage spread like wild fire, after it was obtained from the store.
Eight people have been tested positive of the Coronavirus infection in Malaysia so far. All of them are Chinese nationals. The country has not reported any death caused by the Coronavirus yet.