A claim that the novel coronavirus was never detected in the major Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai has been shared repeatedly on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:, The text post\xa0reads: “The corona Virus travelled entire world from Wuhan but it did not reach Beijing and Shanghai… can anybody put light?”, The novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. As of April 13, 2020, COVID-19 has killed more than\xa0106,000 people and infected nearly 1.7 million others worldwide, according to the World Health Organization., Similar claims about Beijing and Shanghai were also shared on Facebook here and here; on Twitter here and here; and on Instagram\xa0here., The claim is false., "As of April 12,\xa02020, Shanghai, China’s financial hub, has reported 607 confirmed cases of COVID-19, while the Chinese capital of Beijing has reported 589 confirmed cases, according to statistics from Chinas National Health Commission published by state news agency Xinhua.", AFP also reported that Shanghai confirmed its first COVID-19 death on January 26, 2020. Two days later, on January 28, 2020, AFP reported the first COVID-19 fatality in Beijing., Following the viral outbreak, authorities also shut down major tourist attractions and cancelled Chinese New Year celebrations in both Beijing and Shanghai as the cities scrambled to stop the spread of novel coronavirus, reported here by AFP., , , 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.
False claim: Beijing and Shanghai are untouched by COVID-19 | AFP Fact Check