A purported advisory has been shared repeatedly in multiple Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp posts that claims a disinfectant will be sprayed into the air overnight in India in an effort to kill the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. The posts urge residents to remain indoors during the spraying.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:, The text reads as: “Hello i kindly request you not to come out of your house after 10 pm tonight till tomorrow 5 am.... As their will be spraying medicine in the air in order to kill the COVID-19!!\n\tShare this information to all your friends,relatives and your families...\n\tThank you…”, A Hindi translation of the text is also included in the post., A similar claim was\xa0also shared repeatedly on Facebook here and here; and on Twitter here and here., Other posts with the same warning specifying that disinfectant will be sprayed\xa0in Bengaluru, a city in that state of Karnataka, and Raipur, a city in the state of Chhattisgarh, were shared on Facebook here, here, here and here; and on Twitter here and here., The\xa0claims\xa0are false., The central government’s official Press Information Bureau (PIB) posted a statement on\xa0Twitter on March 17, 2020\xa0to debunk a similar false claim, which urged residents to stay indoors at night while the government sprayed “vaccine gas” from airplanes., “NO such action has been planned out by the Indian Government,” the PIB tweet stated., The Bengaluru municipal commissioner, B.H. Anil Kumar, also denied issuing such directives., “Dear Citizens, don’t fall prey to rumours on Whatsapp & other Social Media platforms. #BBMP has no plans to spray any medicine for #COVID19. The best medicine is to stay away from rumours!.” Kumar wrote in a tweet on March 18, 2020. BBMP refers to Bengaluru’s municipal corporation., Dear Citizens, don’t fall prey to rumours on Whatsapp & other Social Media platforms. #BBMP has no plans to spray any medicine for #COVID19. The best medicine is to stay away from rumours!\n\t\tHere is an accompanying advisory for accessing Parks & Gardens#Bengaluru #COVID2019india pic.twitter.com/xy30jh75wI, The mayor of Bengaluru also posted a similar message here on his official Twitter calling the claim a “rumour.”, The Chhattisgarh government also posted a tweet here from their official public relations account calling the advisory “fake.’’ The tweet translates to English as: “This piece of news is completely misleading. Be Aware of such false messages and rumours.”, #Fake_News\n\t\tयह ख़बर पूरी तरह से भ्रामक है।\n\t\tऐसी झूठी ख़बरों और अफ़वाहों से बचें।#CoronaVirus pic.twitter.com/RCGV1UL5m4, The COVID-19 pandemic has so far\xa0infected over 300,000 people worldwide, AFP reported on March 22., , , 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.
Indian authorities refute 'fake' advisory which claimed disinfectant would be sprayed across India to tackle COVID-19 | AFP Fact Check