This video of victims is due to the gas leak and not COVID-19 pandemic.
A video went viral of Facebook with visuals of several people lying on the ground. Claims have been that they were the COVID-19 victims in India.
These posts have been circulated all over Facebook in Sinhala said,”කොරෝනා විහිලුවටගත්, වසංගතය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම ඉවර වීමට පෙර ආරක්ෂණ ප්රතිපත්ති අත් හල ඉන්දියාවේ ජනතාව විදවන අයුරු.” It roughly translates to, “This is how Indians suffer after breaking the rules and safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic before the epidemic was completely eradicated.”
A Facebook profile name “Sajith For President” garnered over 1.4 thousand views after posting this video.
Several others have also posted the video with similar narrative.
Another Facebook profile named “Chandra Kumar” posted three such video of the similar narrative and garnered around 4.4 thousand views and over 1 thousand likes.
Truth
The claim is false. This video is of the victims of the massive gas leak that took place in Visakhpatnam on May 7, 2020 wherein at least 12 people were killed more than hundreds were hospitalized.
A You Tube video by NR Advertisements which was uploaded on May 7 2020 also showed a part of the viral visual. The video was titled,” Toxic Gas Leakage from LG polymers | Creates High Tension @ Vizag | Vizag Gas Leak Video | NRA.” The viral visual spanned from the one minute twenty second mark till two minutes and twenty six seconds of the video uploaded.
The New Indian Express dated May 7, 2020 also had some images that were similar to the visuals in the viral video. The news report was titled, “Disturbing images of Visakhapatnam’s polymers gas leak tragedy.”
Therefore, the visuals do not show the victims of COVID-19 who did not follow the rules, but the victims of a massive gas leak in Vishakapatnam.
