Video Editor: Deepthi Ramdas
As India grapples with the coronavirus outbreak, Delhi has been reporting more than 500 cases of COVID-19 for the past ten days. The National Capital now has 16,281 confirmed cases, which include 7,500 recovered patients.
In light of this, a video showing unhygienic conditions of the COVID-19 ward in a hospital is being widely shared on social media with a claim that it’s from Delhi. The video shows dead bodies being kept in the same ward as other sick patients.
However, we at WebQoof found that contrary to the claim, the video is not from Delhi but from Mumbai’s KEM (King Edwards Memorial) Hospital.
THE CLAIM
The aforementioned video has been shot inside a hospital’s COVID-19 ward and shows dead bodies kept along with other patients. In the video, a person can be heard complaining about the negligence of the hospital and lack of bedding for patients.
The claim shared along with the video reads: “केजरवाल कुछ तो शर्म करो....... हद हो गई भाई। नहीं समलता तो बताओ राष्ट्रपति शासन लागू करने का अनुरोध करें (sic)” [Translation: Kejriwal, you should be ashamed. All limits have been crossed. If you can’t handle the situation, tell us. We will request for President’s Rule in Delhi.]
The video, with the same misleading claim, is viral on Facebook and Twitter.
At the time of filing the report, one post by Rajendra Sharma had garnered over 4,90,000 views and had been shared over 20,000 times.
WHAT WE FOUND
On watching the video carefully, 11 seconds into the video, one can hear the mention of KEM Hospital. KEM (King Edward Memorial) Hospital is a teaching and medical care hospital in Mumbai.
Next, we conducted a Google search using keywords “Dead bodies inside COVID ward KEM Hospital.” This directed us to several news reports citing over-crowding of COVID-19 wards in the hospital and the issue of dead bodies being housed with other sick patients.
We also reached out to Hemant Deshmukh, the dean of KEM Hospital, who confirmed that the video was shot at KEM Hospital in Mumbai. He helped us source a press release by BMC, which cited that the situation arose after staff at the hospital went on a strike.
“On Tuesday, 26 May 2020, the employees of KEM Hospital suddenly went on strike over some issues. However, the agitation was called off after the administration's successful mediation. During this period of agitation, it was natural that the hygiene and patient care of the hospital would be adversely affected,” the press release mentioned.
It further said that the video was recorded when the staff was on strike and the situation in the video is not the present situation at the hospital. The same was reported here.
Clearly, a video from a hospital in Mumbai is being shared to discredit the Delhi government and create panic in the National Capital.
(You can read all our coronavirus related fact-checked stories here.)
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