“Millions of Death recorded as an Effect of the 'CORONAVIRUS' in China,” a Facebook user in Nigeria posted on 13 February 2020.
“Many are still dying and many are infected deeply with it. My question is: WHO CREATED OR INVENTED THIS VIRUS? This is really a 'MASSIVE DESTRUCTION'!”
The post includes an aerial photo of dozens of people lying in the street, seemingly dead.
Have millions of coronavirus deaths been recorded in China? And what does the photo really show?
The World Health Organization publishes daily updates on confirmed cases of the new coronavirus – now known as Covid19 – and global deaths caused by the disease.
By 19 February 2020, according to the WHO, 2,006 people in China had died from Covid-19, with three more deaths in other countries.
The outbreak has so far claimed a global total of 2,009 lives – not “millions” of deaths.
The photo in the post doesn’t show dead people, and has nothing to do with the Covid-19 outbreak.
It was snapped in 2014, and shows a performance art project in Frankfurt, Germany.
The photo appears in a gallery on the Voice of America website, published on 25 March 2014.
It’s captioned: “People lay down in a pedestrian zone as part of an art project in remembrance of the 528 victims of the ‘Katzbach’ Nazi concentration camp, in Frankfurt, March 24, 2014.”
The Katzbach concentration labour camp near Frankfurt operated from late 1944 to early 1945, holding some 1,600 prisoners from eight countries.
The photo has been used in another false claim about the Covid-19 outbreak. – Africa Check
“Many are still dying and many are infected deeply with it. My question is: WHO CREATED OR INVENTED THIS VIRUS? This is really a 'MASSIVE DESTRUCTION'!”
The post includes an aerial photo of dozens of people lying in the street, seemingly dead.
Have millions of coronavirus deaths been recorded in China? And what does the photo really show?
Just over 2,000 deaths
The World Health Organization publishes daily updates on confirmed cases of the new coronavirus – now known as Covid19 – and global deaths caused by the disease.
By 19 February 2020, according to the WHO, 2,006 people in China had died from Covid-19, with three more deaths in other countries.
The outbreak has so far claimed a global total of 2,009 lives – not “millions” of deaths.
Performance art on concentration camp deaths
The photo in the post doesn’t show dead people, and has nothing to do with the Covid-19 outbreak.
It was snapped in 2014, and shows a performance art project in Frankfurt, Germany.
The photo appears in a gallery on the Voice of America website, published on 25 March 2014.
It’s captioned: “People lay down in a pedestrian zone as part of an art project in remembrance of the 528 victims of the ‘Katzbach’ Nazi concentration camp, in Frankfurt, March 24, 2014.”
The Katzbach concentration labour camp near Frankfurt operated from late 1944 to early 1945, holding some 1,600 prisoners from eight countries.
The photo has been used in another false claim about the Covid-19 outbreak. – Africa Check
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