Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
Claim
Government decided to shut down schools until January 29 to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Fact
Coronavirus is not spreading as claimed in the viral video, an old news clip is being shared as recent.
A video claiming that the Covid-19 Crisis Management Coordination Centre (CCMC) has made a slew of recommendations to the government including shutdown of schools until January 29 to contain the spread of coronavirus is going viral on banned TikTok.
TikTok user @khushikumariyadav55 posted a video showing visuals of people carrying saffron flags gathering at an unidentified location. Audio accompanying the video presented in a News bulletin style says, “The CCMC [Covid-19 Crisis Management Coordination Centre] has decided to shut down schools from until Magha 15 (January 29). Visitors must produce their vaccine cards before entering public places such as shopping malls and cinemas starting January 17.”
The video posted on January 14 has garnered 785 likes, 10 users have shared it and seven people have commented until the last count.
The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker searched for the latest news regarding the government decision to shut down schools to contain the spread of coronavirus. We found an article, dated January 8, 2023, published on My Republic online, which confirmed that a new sub variant of Omicron virus ‘JN.1’ was detected in Nepal. However, the spread is not alarming and the government has not taken any precautionary measures such as shutting down schools and making vaccination cards mandatory at public places.
We, then, conducted a search on Google by taking a clue from audio. The search led us to a video, dated January 10, 2022, published on the YouTube channel of Nepal Live online. The video showed an interview of a Spokesperson at the Ministry of Education Deepak, who said the government will issue a notice based on the decision made by CCMC to shut down schools until Magh 15 (29 January, 2022) in view of the growing cases of COVID-19.
We found another article, dated January 9, 2022, published on the Kathmandu Post online which stated that the government has decided to enforce the shutdown of schools until January 29. The article also confirmed that the government has banned the gathering of more than 25 people and to make vaccination cards mandatory for people to enter public places like shopping malls and cinemas.
Further, we found a quick news update video, dated January 11, 2022, on the YouTube channel of News24 Television channel. The news bulletin matched the claim made in the viral video that the schools will remain closed until January 29 and the government has banned the gathering of more than 25 people taking into account the increasing cases of coronavirus.
Thus, our findings clearly show that the corona virus is not spreading at an alarming rate as claimed in the viral video and the government has not made any decision to shut down schools until January 29.
Conclusion
The viral video claiming that the government has announced to shut down schools until January 29 is misleading. An old news clip from 2022 January is being shared as recent.
Result: False
Sources
Nepal Live /YouTube, Jan 10, 2022
Kathmandu Post Jan 9, 2022
My Republica online , January 8, 2023
News24 /YouTube , January 11, 2022
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
