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| - Fact Check: Ghaziabad girl who broke her piggy bank to donate to PM CARES has not died of Covid
A video has gone viral on social media with the claim that a Ghaziabad girl who'd broken her piggy bank to donate money to PM CARES fund has lost her life since she could not get oxygen on time.
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India Today Fact Check
Shakti Pandey, the Ghaziabad girl who’d donated Rs 5,100 to PM CARES last year, is doing well. It is true though that she was recently hospitalised after contracting Covid and her father had to struggle to arrange oxygen for her.
India is battling a shortage of liquid medical oxygen for critical Covid patients as cases keep skyrocketing. Amid despair and cries for help, a video has gone viral on social media with the claim that a Ghaziabad girl who’d broken her piggy bank to donate Rs 5,100 to PM CARES fund has lost her life since she could not get oxygen on time.
The video with an NDTV logo shows a man dragging an oxygen cylinder and placing it on the ground. In another frame, he says, “My daughter had broken her piggy bank to donate Rs 5,100 to PM CARES. And here I am, struggling to arrange oxygen for her. I request Modi ji and the government to provide oxygen for my daughter.”
The bottom strip of the video says, “The girl who had broken her piggy bank to donate to PM CARES is gasping for oxygen.”
A Facebook page shared this video with a claim in Hindi which translates to, “The girl who had donated Rs 5,000 to PM CARES has lost her life due to lack of oxygen.”
Till the filing of this story, the video had already garnered around 2 lakh views and over 4,000 shares. The archived version can be seen here. Another such claim can be seen here.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the girl, Shakti Pandey, is fine now. It is, however, true that her father had to struggle to arrange oxygen for her when she was recently hospitalised after contracting Covid.
AFWA probe
With the help of keyword search, we found the NDTV video report which is being shared with the viral claim. The report, dated April 22, 2021, addresses the issue of oxygen shortage in Ghaziabad hospitals.
In the video, the same man wearing a yellow t-shirt who’s visible in the viral video can be seen talking about the difficulties he had to face to arrange oxygen for his hospitalised daughter. According to the report, the man’s name is Mithilesh Kumar. There’s no mention of the girl’s demise here.
We did not find any credible media report saying the Ghaziabad girl who’d broken her piggy bank to donate to PM CARES has lost her life. India Today’s Ghaziabad correspondent Mayank Gaur confirmed that the girl was admitted in Avantika Hospital, Indirapuram, and she is doing well.
We contacted Dr Yuvraj Sharma, the director of Avantika Hospital, who refuted the viral claim. He said, “Shakti Pandey, daughter of Shailesh Kumar Pandey aka Mithilesh Kumar, was admitted in Avantika Hospital on April 17. She had Covid and her condition was moderate. Her oxygen level was dipping, and since there was a shortage of oxygen in the hospital, her father arranged for the same on his own. I am surprised by the news of her death being shared on social media. I spoke to her father and she’s doing fine.”
Speaking to India Today, 18-year-old Shakti’s father said, “I was sad to hear about the fake news of my daughter’s death being circulated on social media. She is doing well now. As a precautionary measure, she’s still in isolation in a separate room. She had Covid and was admitted in Avantika Hospital. We had to struggle due to oxygen shortage in the hospital. But as of now, she is fine.”
“My daughter was very excited last year when the PM CARES Fund was announced, and she had broken her piggy bank to donate. But she’s currently quite upset looking at the way Covid patients are suffering,” Mithilesh added.
In a tweet dated April 28, 2021, Uttar Pradesh Police also called the claim false and said an FIR has been registered against some people in this matter.
Amidst covid pandemic,some vested interests r spreading an ‘Info-demic’ of #FakeNews related 2 tragedies in order to defame t administration.
In a #socialmedia tool kit fashion, we discovered tweets about a girl’s death in GZB which was fake in which an FIR has been lodged(1/2) pic.twitter.com/qu3DgVLO86 — UP POLICE (@Uppolice) April 28, 2021
Thus, it is clear that the Ghaziabad girl Shakti Pandey, who had broken her piggy bank to donate to PM CARES last year, is doing well, and rumours that she has succumbed to Covid due to lack of oxygen are baseless.
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