Fact check: Are Beijing and Shanghai in China not affected by the coronavirus outbreak?

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has evidently created a situation of paranoia and confusion across the globe. Global coronavirus cases across the world are currently over 1.8 million and is expected to reach 2 million soon. During these testing times, a surge of fake stories on social media has been witnessed. Posts claiming outlandish things without having credible sources has increased on social media, now, one such story has come to light. 

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Claim - 

Many internet users have been making claims about Coronavirus being a cultivated virus designed deliberately to cause a global pandemic. Various conspiracy theorists on social media have been claiming that the coronavirus in China could not reach Beijing and Shanghai but went across the world to cause global destruction. It is being claimed the major cities in China like Bejing did not get a wave of infections like witnessed in Wuhan and later, across the globe. Check it out below - 

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Rating - False

Shanghai is known to be the financial hub of China. To date, Shanghai has recorded 607 cases. On the other hand, Beijing has recorded 589 confirmed cases. These statistics were given out by China's National Health Commission. Both the major cities of China, Beijing and Shanghai, have been under lockdown since early January. 

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Origin - 

Ever since the outbreak of the coronavirus in China has now caused a global pandemic, various conspiracy theorists have been claiming that the outbreak was actually a deliberate act to launch a bioweapon. The conspiracy theories found their way to various social media platforms including video-sharing platform YouTube, where a number of conspiracy theory videos can be found. Check it out below -

Google Trends analysis - 

As a number of conspiracy theories started going around the internet about the speed of coronavirus in Beijing and Shanghai, people started to find answers by searching on Google. This resulted in a surge of search results for the same. Check it out below - 

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