A post has been shared multiple times on Facebook in March 2020 that claims China and Japan are “free” of the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19.
The post, written in a mix of Tagalog and English, reads: "Two countries are already FREE of COVID-19 / 1. China / 2. Japan / I\m sure the Philippines will be third in Jesus name"., Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:, As of April 1, 2020, COVID-19 has killed at least 40,598 people\xa0globally, and infected 823,626\xa0others, according to this\xa0WHO report., A similar claim has\xa0also been shared here, here, here and here on Facebook., , The\xa0claim is\xa0false; China and Japan have both reported new cases of COVID-19 in the days before and after the misleading posts were shared., Data extracted from WHO’s daily situation reports on COVID-19 between March 24 and March 28 found China had reported at least one\xa0hundred new cases daily. Japan also reported dozens of new cases., Below is a chart summarising the numbers of new cases reported during this timeframe:, While China’s official figures routinely show zero new confirmed domestic cases, the Chinese authorities continue to report\xa0confirmed imported cases, as stated in\xa0this AFP report on March 29, 2020., Japan has postponed the Tokyo Olympics to July 23 next year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here is an AFP report on the announcement., , 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 circulates online that China and Japan are 'free' of COVID-19 | AFP Fact Check