The country recorded a global high of over 3 lakh fresh infections since the April 21. Added to that, the shortage in oxygen supply has resulted in major health crises in several states, leading to the death of many COVID-19 patients. On Friday, India saw a single-day rise of 3,32,730 (3.32 lakh) COVID-19 infections and 2,263 fatalities with 24,28,616 (24.28 lakh) active cases.
Amid this a clip with disturbing visuals of people collapsing on the streets after inhaling poisonous gas in Visakhapatnam last year has resurfaced with false claims that it shows the current situation of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in India. The video resurfaced in the backdrop of the spike in COVID-19 cases across India. There has been an unprecedented surge of COVID-19 cases in India in the second wave of the pandemic.
The video has been captioned as, “COVID-19 is on a rampage in India… Hospitals are struggling to cope… There is no a huge shortage of oxygen…. This disease is vicious and cruel. #GetVaccinated and reduce the risk… Vaccines work… The Chinese vaccines are both safe & effective.”
Fragmenting the video into several parts and after running a reverse image search, it directly led to news reports (dated 7 May 2020) by The Telegraph and India Today which carried similar visuals.
As per these reports, the visuals are from a gas leak at a polymer plant near Visakhapatnam. Twelve people were killed in the incident and at least 585 fell sick. Styrene gas leaked out in the in the early hours of the day from LG Polymers plant at RR Venkatapuram village near Vishakhapatnam and quickly spread, impacting about 1,000, people in its five-kilometre radius. Disturbing visuals of people falling unconscious and gasping for breath brought back memories of one of India’s deadliest industrial mishaps, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. The ensuing panic led to rumours of a second leak, which was later dismissed by the local police.
As per the initial reports on May 7, 2020, eleven people had died, including a 6 year-old girl, and over 350 people had been hospitalised after a styrene monomer gas leaked at a chemical plant belonging o LG Polymers. The plant was situated at RR Venkatapuram locality of Visakhapatnam. It was set up in 1961 when the place was outskirts of the city.
Thus, the viral claim is misleading, as, unrelated visuals from the styrene vapour leak incident in Andhra Pradesh is being linked to the surge in India’s COVID cases.
