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| - Fact Check: Why were these bank employees being transferred to an ambulance?
Only one employee of the branch had tested positive of Covid-19. The video is of the staff being evacuated.
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India Today Fact Check
Only one employee was found infected with coronavirus; 17 employees were sent to quarantine and the bank was sealed.
A video showing employees of a Punjab National Bank (PNB) branch being transferred to an ambulance is going viral on social media. It is being claimed that all the employees of this PNB branch at Loni in Ghaziabad, on the outskirts of Delhi, have been found corona positive.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim along with the video to be misleading. Only one employee of the branch had tested positive of Covid-19. The video is of the staff being evacuated.
Among others, Facebook user “Taufik Siddiki” shared the 40-second video with a caption in Hindi that translates to, “All employees of Punjab National Bank found corona positive.”
Till the filing of this story, the post was viewed more than 6,500 times and shared over 800 times. The archived version can be seen here.
AFWA investigation
To find the truth, AFWA contacted Loni sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Khalid Anjum. He said one employee of the PNB branch at Loni’s Balrampur area was found to have contracted coronavirus.
Following this, 17 employees, including two security guards, were sent to quarantine. The branch was sealed and is being sanitised regularly, Anjum said. The viral video was shot on April 28 when the bank was being evacuated and sealed.
Ghaziabad district, with eight hotspots, was earlier marked a red zone. According to media reports, till May 2, Ghaziabad reported 66 cases of coronavirus infections. But among them, 44 patients recovered, and the district was then downgraded as orange zone.
It is clear that all the employees of the said PNB branch at Ghaziabad’s Loni were not infected with coronavirus, as claimed in the viral post. Only one employee tested positive, following which the bank and evacuated and sealed.
Also read: Fact Check: This website of a 'government' scheme for Rs 50,000 aid is fake
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