A video of a street parade has been viewed tens of thousands of times in multiple posts on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube alongside a claim it shows people celebrating the end of a coronavirus lockdown in Saudi Arabia.
The post’s Indonesian-language caption translates to English as: “Alhamdulillah saudi has announced the end of the lockdown period which means the gate of umrah and hajj would be reopened.”, Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:, The Saudi government announced on May 26, 2020, to partially ease\xa0nationwide curfews for two weeks, AFP reported here. The 24-hour lockdowns, however,\xa0remained in some areas that were hardest hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic, including in\xa0Mecca and quarantined neighbourhoods of Medina, Dubai-based news\xa0channel\xa0Al Arabiya reported., Since early March 2020, Saudi Arabia has suspended the year-long umrah pilgrimage and asked people to defer preparations for the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina due to the pandemic., As of May 7, 2020, the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease\xa0COVID-19, has killed more than\xa0200 people\xa0and infected more than 33,000 people in the country, according to\xa0this WHO data., The clip has been viewed more than 158,000 times after it was shared with a\xa0similar claim\xa0on Facebook here, here, here and here; on Instagram here and here; on TikTok here; and on YouTube here and here., The same footage with a similar claim in Malaysian language can be seen here., The claim is false. A reverse image search on Google followed by a\xa0keyword search found this identical, longer clip uploaded on YouTube on April 27, 2020., The video’s Arabic title translates to English as: “Dubai celebrating zero corona cases”, while the caption reads: “Celebrating zero corona cases, after opening the Naif area in Dubai.”, , "The Dubai Media Office tweeted on April 27, 2020, saying: “Dubais Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management eases restrictions on movement in Al Ras and Naif. The Decision comes as both areas record zero COVID-19 cases in the last two days. Restrictions on movement will continue to be in place between 10.00 pm and 6.00 am as with the rest of the emirate.”", Al Ras and Naif are two neighborhoods located in Dubai., Below is a\xa0screenshot comparison between the footage in the misleading post (L) and video on YouTube (R):, AFP found the misleading footage was taken at 27th Street\xa0in Dubai., , Below is a screenshot comparison between footage in the misleading post (L) and Google Street View (R), with identifiable structures circled in red by AFP:, A video showing a similar scene\xa0was\xa0uploaded by Dubai police on Twitter here on April 28, 2020., The tweet reads: "Residents in Naif area erupted in celebrations following the ease of the 24-hour quarantine measures after recording zero COVID-19 cases. They commended the UAE efforts to contain the pandemic and provide the highest levels of protection to all community members.", Residents in Naif area erupted in celebrations following the ease of the 24-hour quarantine measures after recording zero COVID-19 cases. They commended the UAE efforts to contain the pandemic and provide the highest levels of protection to all community members. pic.twitter.com/0btYnipVWT, Khaleej Time, a Dubai-based English newspaper, also published a report on the street celebration here on April 27, 2020., , 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.
This video shows a street in Dubai after authorities eased coronavirus lockdown measures | AFP Fact Check