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| - Fact Check: Real story behind man chased by health workers in PPEs
A video of policemen and health workers in personal protective equipments trying to restrain a man and then chasing him when he breaks free has netizens in splits. Social media users claim the man is a Covid-19 patient who refused to be hospitalised; some others say the incident is from Telangana.
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India Today Fact Check
The man was not a Covid-19 patient. He had just returned from Saudi Arabia and was supposed to be in home quarantine. The incident is from Kerala.
A video of policemen and health workers in personal protective equipments trying to restrain a man and then chasing him when he breaks free has netizens in splits. Social media users claim the man is a Covid-19 patient who refused to be hospitalised; some others say the incident is from Telangana.
The 50-second video is going viral with the caption, "IN TELENGANA, A COVID POSITIVE PERSON WAS TRYING TO ESCAPE FROM THE TEAM OF POLICE AND DOCTORS. WHY IS SUCH THINGS ARE HAPPENING?"
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claims to be false. Neither is the man a Covid-19 patient, nor did the incident take place in Telangana. The man being chased is a Saudi Arabia returnee from Kerala's Pathanamthitta district.
In the video, the man can be heard telling police and health workers in Malayalam language not to come near him. The archived versions can be seen here and here.
AFWA probe
When keyframes from the video were extracted and searched with Google reverse image search, we found longer versions of the video on YouTube. These videos were uploaded by local television channels in Kerala on July 6, 2020. The man can be seen running on the road in a bid to escape, even as locals joined the chase and health workers urged them to steer clear.
According to the report by "Manorama News", the man, identified as 45-year-old Vidhu, is a native of Chenneerkara village in Kerala's Pathanamthitta district. He had returned from Riyadh only on July 3 and was supposed to be in home quarantine. Reports by MediaOne TV, The New Indian Express and The News Minute also confirmed the incident.
"The incident took place on July 6 at around 11 am. Police, who were placed at St. Peter's junction in Pathanamthitta as part of Covid-19 precautionary patrol, noticed a man without mask travelling on a scooter and stopped him," Pathanamthitta sub-inspector Ajith Kumar told AFWA.
"Only after stopping and questioning him did police learn that he had landed in Kerala from Riyadh on July 3. When cops tried to take him to hospital, he refused. Since the man looked mentally disturbed, four health workers wearing PPE kits were called to the spot," Ajith Kumar added. The man was finally caught and taken to the district hospital in Kozhencherry
Therefore, the claim along with the viral video that the man is a Covid-19 patient in Telangana, trying to escape police and health workers is false.
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