Old news reports on West Bengal government measures during previous COVID-19 waves shared as recent - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 26, 2022
Amid the rise of COVID-19 cases in multiple countries, multiple video news reports are being shared on social media claiming that the West Bengal government has recently imposed a partial lockdown again in the state and decided to promote the 10 and 12 standard students without conducting examinations. These posts can be seen here and here. Let’s verify the claims made in these posts.
Claim: West Bengal government imposed a partial lockdown again in the state and decided to promote 10 & 12 standard students without conducting examinations.
Fact: The news reports shared in these posts are old. Lately, the West Bengal government neither imposed a partial lockdown in their state nor announced the promotion of 10 and 12 standard students without conducting examinations. Hence, the claims made in these posts are FALSE.
Video 1:
The ‘ABP News’ video shared in the post reports that the West Bengal government had issued orders to promote 10 and 12 standard students without conducting examinations. Also, the posts claim that the Mamata Banerjee led government issued orders to shut down schools from 26 December 2022. When we searched for this news report using relevant keywords on the internet, we found that ‘ABP News’ had published this video two years ago in 2020. ‘ABP News’ published this video on 11 November 2020, with the Title, “WB Govt Decides To Promote Class 10 & 12th Students Without Exams”. Lately, West Bengal’s Health Ministry and the Education Ministry did not issue any such orders imposing a partial lockdown or announcing the promotion of 10 & 12th Students without conducting examinations.
Video 2:
The ‘Republic Bangla’ video shared in this post reports that a partial lockdown will be imposed in the state from 03 January 2023. When searched for this video using relevant keywords on the internet, we found the same news report published on Republic Bangla’s Facebook page on 02 January 2022. According to the news report, amid the rising COVID-19 cases then in the state, the West Bengal government had decided to impose strict restrictions again in the state from 03 – 15 January 2022. As part of these restrictions, the West Bengal government decided to shut down schools, colleges and universities, and ordered to run local trains with only 50 percent of total capacity. Reporting the same, several news sites published articles and videos in January 2022. Lately, the West Bengal government did not announce any partial lockdown amid the rise of COVID-19 in multiple countries.
To sum it up, old videos are shared as latest news reports informing a partial lockdown, and the promotion of 10 & 12 students without examinations in West Bengal.