A student from the Indian state of Gujarat was found spreading fake news about a COVID outbreak in her school to avoid taking an exam in the offline mode. A message started circulating on whatsapp groups. The message said that there were many students in Udgam School in Ahmedabad, who had tested positive with coronavirus, after they attended an offline exam. Many parents were filled with fear, as they read this message. They did not want to send their children to school, to give the exams. This news soon reached the school authorities. They were taken aback, and shocked at this claim. They said that this was a false report, and nothing of this sort had taken place in the school. They carried out an investigation. It turned out that a high school student was responsible for circulating the false report. 

The student said that she had panicked after getting to know that her school would be conducting offline exams. She spread the news so that the school cancels the exam. The school’s authorities have decided not to file a police complaint against the student. They say that she regrets her actions. Hvovi Bhagwagar is a counselling psychologist. She said that students and young adults face forms of anxiety, stress and pressure while making this transition from online classes, back to offline mode. This is because in the online mode, they had more freedom. With offline classes, they will be back under the watch of their teachers.

Apart from this, there have also been various cases in the past, where people have faked being covid positive. In February, an air traveller said that he was infected with COVID. This led the plane to make an emergency landing. The man actually wasn’t positive. He did this to pull off a prank and go viral on social media. Another man pulled off the same prank on a metro in Moscow, pretending to collapse due to COVID in an attempt to go viral. He was sentenced to five years in jail.

Tags

• Fake
• message
• Whatsapp
• gujarat
• ahmedabad

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