Images of leather goods covered in mold from Malaysia going viral in India amidst lockdown.
Claim: A post has been going viral among Indian accounts on social media. The post constitutes of a set of pictures of leather goods in a shop that has mold on it. The post claim that since central air conditioning is off, mold has started to grow on leather goods and urges the audience to think of the condition when malls reopen after lockdown and the respiratory problem this would cause. The post asks the people not to visit malls for a month after the lockdown is lifted. The viral post doesn’t specify where the location is but has started going viral in India and India is currently in it’s third phase of lockdown when restrictions are loosening a bit. The post has been shared extensively in India. The post was also seen to be shared among few accounts from Pakistan.
The caption of the viral post reads as follow:
Various Indian accounts shared the photos with the caption on Facebook.
The same post is floating on Twitter as well.
All central ac system shut
It’s caused the mould on on leather goods …. but you at least see these
Imagine when malls open the fungus in the ducts will fly free in closed atmosphere of malls….. entering our respiratory system.. leading to major infections @AshishSinghLIVE pic.twitter.com/aWtvu6Hat4— प्रवीण मिश्रा (@praveenm_mishra) May 12, 2020
All central ac system shut
It’s caused the mould on on leather goods …. but you at least see these
Imagine when malls open the fungus in the ducts will fly free in closed atmosphere of malls….. entering our respiratory system….. leading to major infections pic.twitter.com/08MpsucTSs— ஹிந்து விமல் 🇮🇳🚩 (@vimal043) May 13, 2020
Truth
Upon doing a simple reverse image search, it was found that the pictures in the viral post is from a Malaysian Mall. Malaysia loosened its Movement Control Order (MCO) recently which was imposed on 18th March, 2020 to decrease the spread of the corona virus. Malaysia’s Metrojaya Center closed under these restrictions, leather goods at the mall were covered in mold after a two-month lockdown. The viral photos are from this mall. Various media websites carried article about this incident with photos. The viral photos are the same as the one featured in the articles in the websites. Mashable SE Asia, CGTN and India Times are few of the websites that reported the incident.
Thus the images of leather goods covered in mold are from Malaysia and not from India.
Attached below is the video of the incident that has been posted by CGTN on their YouTube channel.
Source: CGTN
Screenshots and links of articles published by media websites are given below.
Source: Mashable SE Asia
Source: India Times
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