Fact Check: Govt Clears Air Around Fake WHO Coronavirus Lockdown Schedule

The fake circular said that WHO has divided the lockdown into four steps and the Indian government is going to follow the same protocol.

New Delhi: Amid the surge in the novel Coronavirus infection, cases around the world, a fallacious circular which shows the World Health Organisation (WHO) lockdown schedule is going viral on Whatsapp and Facebook. India's PIB dismissed any such information being circulated on the name of WHO and marked it as fake news. The Press Information Bureau of India (PIB), through their fake news detection initiative PIB Fact Check, put out a tweet saying the WHO circular about the lockdown schedule was fake. The PIB Fact Check tweet said, "Claim: A so-called circular, said to be from WHO is floating around on WhatsApp, saying that it has announced a lockdown schedule." PIB further said that WHO has already clarified in its Twitter handle that no such notice has been issued by the organization.

The fake circular said that WHO has divided the lockdown into four steps and the Indian government is going to follow the same protocol. Since the outbreak of the deadly COVID-19 infection worldwide , the government of India has urged all the online websites to dodge circulation of any kind of fake news as it can create panic among the mass. The government has also done tie-ups with social networking platforms to help avoid the spread of fake news during the Coronavirus lockdown. India is observing a 21-day lockdown after PM Modi's announcement. The lockdown will end on April 14. Meanwhile, the number of Coronavirus cases in India soared to 4,067 out of which 3,666 are active cases, 291 are recovered cases, 1 migrant patient and 109 deaths as per Ministry of Health data at 10 am IST on Monday.