When fake Covid-19 news sent a colony in Chennai into panic – Times of India

Chennai News

CHENNAI: On Monday morning came a WhatsApp forward urging residents of Thomas Nagar, Saidapet, not to walk in the neighbouring Srinagar Colony as it had a “confirmed case of Covid-19”. The message was sparked by an early-morning walker who noticed some activity around an ambulance outside an apartment building on Srinagar Colony’s North Avenue. The conscientious citizen, evidently unaware that the government had called for criminal action against those spreading false information, decided to immediately head over to his side of the fence and sound the battle cry.
By Monday evening, the rumours spread at breakneck speed, and almost every street in Srinagar Colony became the supposedly “infected street”. By nightfall, residents from a few streets in Rangarajapuram – which borders an end of the colony – decided to flee the city. “We’re heading to our village,” they said. “The air is cleaner and the corona ‘noyi’ (disease) will not harm us there.” As to who had told them this, most pointed to an elderly lady down the street, with an all-encompassing knowledge of where and how the ‘noyi’ strikes. On Tuesday morning, most of Rangarajapuram had vanished to the corona-free promised land.
On North Avenue, poor ‘patient zero’ had returned from hospital. A doctor on the neighbouring street said that on Monday the woman had exhibited signs of low BP and had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance as no taxis were available. “Nowadays, you can’t even have low BP without worry. People immediately assume it is a case of Covid-19,” said the doctor.
The woman is back at home now. Happily? Not really, because on Tuesday morning, one did notice a couple of people standing near the apartment building, calling it “the Covid house”. Clearly, rumours can be as potent as the virus itself. No wonder, the government has started cracking the whip on rumour mongers, even arrested a few.

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Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/when-fake-covid-19-news-sent-a-colony-in-chennai-into-panic/articleshow/74802384.cms