A post on Facebook and Twitter claims an official advisory was issued by Singapore’s Ministry of Health about the first symptoms of the novel coronavirus.
The post lists common COVID-19 symptoms that can be seen in the first nine days of infection, ranging from flu-like symptoms and sore throat to breathing problems., Below is the screenshot of the misleading post:, Part of the Thai-language caption translates to English as: \xa0“From the ministry of health in Singapore, the initial symptoms of COVID-19 \xa0from MOH - the summary., “Be aware of the symptoms for COVID-19 day by day\n\tDay 1-3 symptoms like a cold, slight sore throat, no fever not tired\n\tDay 4 body feels like drunk, voice starts to change, body temp approximately 36.5 degrees Celsius, difficulties in eating, minor headache, minor stomach complications\n\tDay 5 Sore throat and voice change, body temp 36.5-36.7, physical fatigue and pains at joints\n\tDay 6 mild fever body temp at 37\n\tDay 9 no change but will be the worst, coughing worsens, fever worsens, difficulty in breathing\n\tIn this phase, there is a necessity in blood check and chest X-rays.”, The purported advisory was also shared here, here, here and here on Facebook and here and here on Twitter with a similar claim., The same claim was shared alongside a video\xa0here in English., The\xa0claim is false; Singapore’s Ministry of Health said it did not issue\xa0the purported\xa0advisory., Ng Tse Wei, the senior assistant director of the Singaporean Ministry of Health’s \xa0Corporate Communications Division told AFP via email on March 25 that the ministry “is not the source of the content.”, AFP conducted searches on the Singaporean government website’s COVID-19 section and found no results relating to “First symptoms of COVID-19” guidelines, or similar., , 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.
Singapore’s Ministry of Health says it did not issue these COVID-19 'guidelines' | AFP Fact Check