Fact Check: Do not believe this emotional viral story with father-child photograph
A photograph of a man hugging his child wrapped in clear plastic went viral on social media. It is being claimed that the kid has coronavirus symptoms and her father is asking people to pray for her.
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India Today Fact Check
The real story is that a father is on Covid-19 duty and he came to meet his son.
A photograph of a man hugging his child wrapped in clear plastic went viral on social media. It is being claimed that the kid has coronavirus symptoms and her father is asking people to pray for her. However, her test results are awaited. The mother of this chiled died while giving birth to her.
The original story behind this photo is something else. The photo is from Malaysia. India Today's Anti Fake team found an Instagram post from a verified account with a caption in the Malay language.
The translation of the caption said that the man in the photograph is a soldier on coronavirus duty. The soldier didn't meet his son for a long time and was only communicating through telephone and video calls, as he was on duty.
However, one day the child insisted to meet his father. To fulfill his wishes, the father went to see him. He took a plastic bag and wrapped his child before hugging him. Credits for this photograph have been given to Malaysian daily newspaper Sinar Harian and Eris Riswandi.
The archived version of the viral post can be seen here.
We found the same photo with the same story on Eris Riswandi's Facebook timeline posted on April 16.
We also found some media reports which was published on Malaysian news portals confirming the story. Quoting the report Malaysian daily, the report said that the man is a soldier on corona duty, and he came to see his son.
With this, tt is clear that neither the kid in the viral photo has coronavirus, nor the man is asking people to pray for the child.
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