School-Turned-COVID Ward in Delhi Passed off as ‘Beds in Lucknow’

The image of a government school in Delhi’s Rouse Avenue is being shared as a COVID facility in Lucknow.

The image is of a government school in Delhi's Rouse Avenue.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

An image of beds lined up in a COVID ward at a government school in Delhi's Rouse Avenue has been shared by Aaj Tak and other social media users, falsely identifying the location as Lucknow.

CLAIM

The image was then shared with the claim, "लखनऊ में 1500 बेड और तैयार किए गये, कोरोना हारेगा" (Translation: "1500 beds and ready in Lucknow, corona will lose") by several users.

Facebook user Eqra Anwer had garnered over 1,200 likes on their post at the time of writing this article.

You can view an archived version here.

(Photo: Facebook/Screenshot)

Archived versions of similar claims on Facebook and Twitter can be viewed here, here and here.

The image was also shared by Aaj Tak's Twitter handle on 20 April, with the caption, "UP Corona LIVE: 1550 beds reserved for COVID by Lucknow district administration", in Hindi.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We noticed that several users had replied to Aaj Tak's tweet, stating that the image was from Delhi.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had shared images from a different angle of a Delhi government school at Rouse Avenue, which has now been converted into a COVID hospital with 125 beds with the help of 'Doctors for You'.

A comparison of the images tweeted by Aaj Tak and Sisodia show that the wards are the same.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Further, Sisodia had also shared a report by NDTV on the COVID ward in Delhi. Visuals of the government school being converted into a COVID centre, match the image shared by Aaj Tak.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Further, Aaj Tak had reported in its live blog that the district administration had reserved 1,550 beds for COVID patients in hospitals like Medanta, Apollo and Sahara, due to the surge in cases.

However, users shared the image used by Aaj Tak with the false claim that a facility with 1,500 beds had been created in Lucknow.

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