Indian man booked for posting false information about coronavirus on social media

A man from Arunachal Pradesh has been booked on charges of posting misleading information about the novel coronavirus outbreak on social media.

An FIR was registered against the man, identified as Subu Kena Tsering, from Arunachal Pradesh's East Siang district, after he posted misleading information regarding two people being infected with the virus. Tsering posted in a Facebook group that coronavirus has reached Pasighat and two patients have been referred to Dibrugarh in upper Assam, officials reportedly said. After a three-year-old kid in Kerala and a 63-year-old woman in Kashmir tested positive for the virus, the number of confirmed cases in India stands at 43.

The novel coronavirus, now officially called Covid-19, has claimed the lives of more than 3600 people and infected nearly 107485 people across the world. The virus was first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in China. As the death toll and overall cases began rising rapidly across the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency.