A claim that 500 body bags were delivered to an ice skating rink outside the Australian city of Adelaide has been shared widely on Facebook during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
"The post reads in part: “500!!!!! BODY BAGS were delivered to the ice arena in theberton #adelaide Its being turned into a make shift morgue”.", Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:, As of April 2, 367 of the more than 4,900\xa0confirmed cases of novel coronavirus\xa0in Australia were reported in the state of South Australia., Similar claims about the ice rink\xa0were also shared on Facebook\xa0here and here, and on Reddit\xa0here., However, the claim\xa0is false., South Australia’s Department of Health confirmed it is a “myth”, and the only ice rink in Thebarton, the Adelaide suburb mentioned in the misleading posts, also refuted the claim., “Using Mt Thebarton skating ice rink for storage of body bags is a myth,"\xa0a\xa0Department of Health spokesperson said in an email to AFP on April 1., A spokesperson for ICE\xa0ArenA, the skating rink\xa0in Thebarton, also said that the claim is "completely false.", "We have not received any body bags, plus we shut down our chiller plants almost two weeks ago and no longer have an ice surface. We did this to save electricity during our shutdown period," the spokesperson\xa0told AFP via Facebook Messenger on April 1., Ice rinks have been used as\xa0temporary mortuaries in countries hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic, such as Spain, according to this AFP video report., The health minister of the Australian Capital Territory, where the capital Canberra is located, announced on March 29 that the government would use the capital\s ice rink as a\xa0makeshift morgue in the "worst case scenario”, the\xa0Canberra Times\xa0reported., , Much of Australia has\xa0been on lockdown since mid-March in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has\xa0killed more than 40,000 people and infected over 827,000 others worldwide,\xa0according to the\xa0World Health Organization., , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
‘It’s a myth’: South Australian health authorities dismiss rumour about an ice rink-turned-morgue for COVID-19 victims | AFP Fact Check