FACT CHECK: Was the Man Who Collapsed and Died in a Supermarket Suffering from COVID-19? Here’s the Truth...

Since the beginning of COVID19 pandemic, we have seen a lot of content on social media showing people suffering from COVID-19 fainting and dying eventually. While many of these were actually COVID19 related deaths, a number of videos and images were also found to be falsely connected to COVID19 and shared on social media. Here is Factcrescendo Sri Lankan team’s investigation of one such video where a middle aged man is seen fainting in a supermarket. It was alleged that he was suffering from COVID-19 and he died after falling unconscious.

But, was the victim actually suffering from COVID-19? No, he wasn’t. Let’s see what actually happened to the man seen in the viral video. But first, let’s check out the narrative spreading around this video on social media platforms.

Social Media Posts:

An image of a person falling unconscious in what seems like a supermarket, went viral among Sri Lankan social media users who shared it with the following caption: “A COVID-19 infected person fell and died suddenly, a horrifying video” as seen below.

Facebook | Archived

The video related to this incident can be seen below.

Even some websites reported this incident claiming that the person seen in the video fell down and died due to COVID-19 .One such report can be seen here.

Gossipmachan| Archived Link

Fact Check

Using keyword search we were able to locate the whereabouts of this tragic incident. The scenes were from a CCTV footage of Sunrise Super, a supermarket located in Kundasale, Kandy from 3^rd of September. Hence Factcrescendo Sri Lanka team contacted the manager of the supermarket to get more details regarding this incident.

“This person suffered this tragic incident when he was trying to pay for the goods he had picked at the supermarket. He suddenly fell on the ground and his condition became critical and died. The Pallekale Police came to the place immediately and conducted an investigation and the body was removed by the Police. The supermarket was closed for one day due to the concerns of the person being infected with COVID 19. However, after Police informed us the person who died was not a COVID-19 patient, we opened the super market again” the Sunrise Super manager clarified.

We also contacted the Pallekale Police Station regarding the incident and they confirmed that the 35-year-old person, Suresh Kumar, seen in the footage, died due to a sudden heart attack and he had not contracted COVID-19 infection.

The Public Health Officer (PHI) of the Pallekale region also confirmed the above details and added that the PCR test done on the deceased clarified that he was not positive for COVID19.

Hiru TV also reported the incident and they have also mentioned that the person died due to a sudden heart attack as seen here.

Here is the Sinhala language fact check for this story.

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Conclusion

According to our investigation, it was clear that the person who fell down and faced a tragic death in a supermarket in Kundasale, Kandy was not COVID19 patient. The 35 year old victim died due to a sudden heart attack confirmed by the Pallekale Police and the Public Health officer.