Published 13:22 IST, March 27th 2020
Fact Check: Did BMC call Minarette Building, Andheri 'high-risk' due to COVID-19 patients?
Fact Check: The Minarette Building near Bhavans College in Andheri West is claimed to be a high-risk zone after three positive cases of coronavirus were found.
The Coronavirus positive cases in Maharashtra has reached 128 as this deadly disease is taking its grip throughout the country. As the panic for the virus has been spreading, there are also many rumours flying around about various things related to coronavirus. A recent rumour that took hold of social media portals is that the Minarette Building in Andheri West near Bhavans College has been declared as a high-risk zone by the Bombay Municipal Corporation. This is because there were three cases of coronavirus found in the building.
Minarette, Andheri West declared to be a high-risk zone?
Claim:
An image is being shared across social media that there have been three positive cases of Coronavirus found in the Minarette Building near Bhavans College in Andheri. The post also claims that BMC has quarantined the entire society and claimed it to be a high-risk zone. It also claims that the residents are looking for maids or servants that will be quarantined with them. Several people seem to think that the first confirmed COVID-19 positive patients in Mumbai resided in this building.
After these messages started making their turns on the internet, people took to Twitter to ask the BMC and other officials to confirm this news. They have tweeted about how the message claims it to be high-risk zone and is done so by the BMC itself. The BMC has not yet responded to these tweets. Here are the posts:
Rating: Fake
The report is a mix of facts and false information. As per Republic World's sources, there have been patients tested positive in the building and it has been sanitized. However, these patients are not the same couple who were the first to be confirmed positive in the city.
It is extremely important to note that there has been no official announcement by the Bombay Municipal Corporation or by any other official source about any building being declared high-risk, thus it is safe to say that the Minarette building in Andheri West is not claimed to be a high-risk zone by the BMC.
Origin:
The rumour first started circulating through social media portals. Though it was present over the internet, it was mainly passed on through Whatsapp and Facebook. Another possible cause of the rumour could be traced back to the fact that the couple who were the first confirmed cases in the city live in the same area as Minarette. They live in Andheri West. As per a trusted Republic World source, while the couple does live near Bhavans College, they are not residents of Minarette Building.
We contacted a resident of Minarette Building who threw some light upon the situation. The resident shared that a doctor who resided in the building was tending to a Chinese patient with Coronavirus. He was exposed to the virus and his wife also got tested positive for the same. The two are now safe and are recovering well in a hospital in Mumbai. The BMC doctors have been visiting the building and keeping a check on all the residents of the building. The doctor’s maid, as well as his neighbours, have been tested negative as well. While the rumour claims that there were three people tested positive in the building, our source confirmed that there were only two.
Google Trends analysis and related queries trending on the search engine
People have started to search for information about this rumour on March 25. The trend saw a peak on the same day but also collapsed after a few hours. People have also tried to search as much as possible to find some concrete information about the same.
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Updated 13:27 IST, March 27th 2020