As the coronavirus continues to spread worldwide and with the World Health Organization praising China for its efforts to control the virus, a video circulated online that purports that China performs cremation on COVID-19 patients who are still alive.
On February 24, woman shared her traumatic experience inside a Wuhan hospital. In the video, she claimed seeing a man who exhibited severe symptoms of COVID-19 being put in a black plastic bag and was sent to cremation. However, said man is still alive since she saw his feet moving.
In the video, the woman was telling her traumatic tale to a taxi driver who was covered with protective gear from head to toe. She narrated that she was brought to the hospital on January 28, where she witnessed the man who was in the bed beside hers being "taken care of," as medical personnel bounded took the man from the room, wrapped in layers of material while still alive.
Moreover, the woman also claimed that she saw several patients who were stuffed in the same bags while still alive. Also adding that the facility looked more like a nursing home instead of the hospital and that the medical treatment being offered and available were only oxygen tanks.
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However, soon after it was posted, the post was flagged by Facebook as a fake news as part of the social networking site's efforts to fight disinformation and to combat false news on its feed.
The Chinese government has ordered a ban on burials and funerals of COVID-19 patients, earlier this month. It was announced that all fatalities of the virus should be cremated immediately.
This then sparked speculations that Chinese authorities were trying to cover-up the real tally of deaths by burning the evidence. There has also been news circulating that China has been secretly cremating bodies to not increase their death toll.
The latest video, however, where the woman claimed that patients were being burned alive was tagged by Politifact, a fact-checking organization as false and that there is no evidence that proves that there is truth to the allegations.
WHO has previously announced that people should not believe everything that circulates in social media as many are taking advantage of the outbreak and are spreading false news. This then escalates bringing fear and panic around the world.
Aside from false news, the WHO has also warned of scams that arise amid the outbreak including those posing as health organizations and ask for donations online. They also stressed that any emails that will be received claiming to be WHO should be reported as these might be used for the phishing of personal and bank information.
The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China has already infected more than 115,000 people across continents since the first reported cases in 2019. Moreover, the death toll has also passed the 4,000-mark as there are now more than 4,200 deaths recorded worldwide.
