The Bengaluru City Police on Sunday arrested a man who circulated false videos of Victoria Hospital. The viral video shows a doctor lamenting about over 100 patients being gathered in a small space.
In a tweet, Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao said, "City Crime Branch swiftly identified and arrested this person who has been circulating false videos of panic in Victoria Hospital, Bangalore. Kudos to all doctors and medical professionals who are doing their best.FALSE NEWS BUSTED."
City Crime Branch swiftly identified and arrested this person who has been circulating false videos of panic in Victoria Hospital, Bangalore. Kudos to all doctors and medical professionals who are doing their best.FALSE NEWS BUSTED pic.twitter.com/2o9ZTFns4z
— Bhaskar Rao IPS (@deepolice12) July 19, 2020
In the viral video, a man who identifies himself as a doctor can be heard saying that he is filming the video because of the rush, where scores of people are huddled together in a small space. “Looking at the amount of patients here, it is a complete threat to all the doctors and staff of the hospital including the patients,” he can be heard saying.
Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime of Bangalore City Police earlier said on Sunday confirmed that the video is not from Bengaluru. “#Covid False video about conditions of hospitals in Blore circulated on social media..Case registered in Cybercrime PS..While Govt, society at large fighting the pandemic..Some r creating/forwarding messages/videos which has potential to create panic in society..REFRAIN FROM IT,” he tweeted.
According to Bangalore Mirror, Dr CR Jayanthi, director-cum-dean of the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (which runs Victoria Hospital) said that the video is from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna. Meanwhile, some people on social media sites said that this is Mahavir Cancer Sansthan in Patna. While TNM could not independently ascertain where the video is from, multiple sources in Bengaluru have confirmed that this is not from the city.
This comes as Karnataka’s COVID-19 cases steadily climbs, with 4,537 new cases on Saturday, the biggest spike so far, taking the total to 59,652. Out of 4,537 fresh cases reported, 2,125 cases were from Bengaluru Urban alone.
The total fatalities in the state climbed to 1,240 with 93 deaths on Saturday. With 1,018 discharges, the number of patients who recovered and were discharged reached 21,775.
Of the 59,652 COVID-19 cases in the state, 36,631 are active cases.
The state capital has so far reported the highest number of cases at 29,621, including 6,540 discharges and 631 COVID-19 deaths.
On Saturday, 34,819 tests were conducted taking the cumulative tests so far to 9.84 lakh. Till now 8.99 lakh tests came negative including 28,550 on Thursday.