A photo of a couple locked in an intimate embrace with their face masks lowered has been shared in Facebook posts that claim they were nurses who were treating COVID-19 patients in an Italian hospital.
“The picture below was taken while they were working in hospital, few days before Antonio got infected, unaware that this might be their last kiss,” it says. “They both died holding each others hand,” it adds., Similar social media posts here, here and here make the same false claim., The original photo, however, was shot by an Associated Press (AP) photographer on March 12 and appears on the AP Images website here\xa0as part of the news agency’s pictures of the week gallery., The accompanying caption makes clear the location is the Barcelona airport, not a hospital in Italy. AFP found the original photo by using a reverse image search., The photo’s full caption reads: “A man and woman kiss in the Barcelona, Spain airport on Thursday, March 12, 2020. President Donald Trump, who had downplayed the coronavirus for weeks, suddenly struck a different tone, announcing strict rules on restricting travel from much of Europe to begin this weekend. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti).”, The same photo has also circulated alongside text claiming that it shows two Italian doctors who died of COVID-19., As of April 9, AFP Fact Check has debunked more than 270 examples of false or misleading information about the novel coronavirus. A complete list of our fact checks on the topic in English can be found\xa0here., , 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.
Photo does not show nurses treating COVID-19 patients in Italy | AFP Fact Check