An Instagram post from January 31, 2020 features a claim that WHO has called the coronavirus “a plague and it has infected an estimated 340,000 people in China and killed 75,000.

Original publisher’s rating

False - The primary claims of the content are factually inaccurate. Based on the evidence, AAP FactCheck found the Instagram post to be false. While the WHO has declared the 2019 coronavirus outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, it has not deemed the outbreak as a “plague”. Also the number of infections and deaths globally are far below the numbers claimed in the post. Although the Instagram user labelled the claim in their first upload with “cap”, potentially indicating the post was false, many users appear unaware the post contains false information.

Reviewed by AAP FactCheck ↗ · February 4, 2020