Claim:

Kindly do not come out of your house after 10 pm tonight till tomorrow 5:00AM as there will be spraying of medicine in the air in order to kill the COVID-19. Share this information to all your friends, relatives and your families in Chandigarh.

Verification:

Amid panic over the novel Coronavirus, rumour mongering messages and graphics are doing the rounds on various social media platforms. A message is going viral on social media claiming that the government is going to spray chemicals in the air in order to kill the  COVID 19 virus in Chandigarh.

The text of the viral message reads, ”Kindly do not come out of your house after 10 pm tonight till tomorrow 5 am as there will be spraying of medicine in the air in order to kill the COVID-19. Share this information to all your friends, relatives and your families in Chandigarh.”

We found that several users shared the viral message on social media with multiple claims. Facebook user ‘Samanthi Rajapakse’ claimed this message is from the  Municipal Commissioner ofMumbai while some other users claimed that this will happen in Delhi.

The claim was also sent by several readers to Newschecker’s WhatsApp helpline number for verification.
 

Fact Check:

As we began fact checking the claim, we looked for any orders passed by the  Municipalities of Chandigarh, Delhi or Bengaluru on their official website. However, we did not find any information to corroborate the same. 

While searching the reality of the viral message, we came across the government’s Press Information Bureau (PIB). PIB Fact Check, the official Twitter handle of the Press Information Bureau department that counters misinformation on government policies, denied the viral message and said “No such action has been planned by the Government of India to counter coronavirus. There is misinformation being spread on social media that the government is planning to spray medicine in the air which will kill the coronavirus.” PIB Fact Check also urged social media users to seek authentic information from its site and that of the Health Ministry’s.

Amidst #Coronavirusoutbreak, misinformation on CV Vaccine gas spread out through Airplanes is circulating on social media
NO such action has been planned out by the Indian Government.

Get your facts from trusted sources. Do not amplify #fakenews! pic.twitter.com/8F5ksKKBEm

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) March 17, 2020

Conclusion:

It is evident from our fact check that the government has not planned any spraying of medicines in the air to curb the coronavirus outbreak. The message that is viral on social media with multiple claims is false.

Result: False

Sources

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