{"id":45077,"date":"2024-05-09T16:16:46","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T14:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/mthathaexpress\/fake-news-social-media-post-claiming-26-cases-of-covid-19-in-may-in-east-london-20240509\/"},"modified":"2025-03-21T09:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T07:22:09","slug":"fake-news-social-media-post-claiming-26-cases-of-covid-19-in-may-in-east-london-20240509","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/mthathaexpress\/fake-news-social-media-post-claiming-26-cases-of-covid-19-in-may-in-east-london-20240509\/","title":{"rendered":"Fake news: Social media post claiming 26 cases of COVID-19 in May in East London"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The Eastern Cape Health Department says that a social media message claiming there have been 26 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in East London since May 8 is fake news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is, however, currently in peak circulation in the country, with influenza virus infections on the increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Eastern Cape Health Department spokesperson Mkhululi Ndamase said, \u201cWe are calling on people to stop spreading fake news as this causes unnecessary panic. Being vaccinated against COVID-19 is still the best defense against the virus. We urge more people to get vaccinated, as 2,656,714 people have been vaccinated, with 2,211,940 of those fully vaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">According to Ndamase, there has only been one case of COVID-19 reported in May in East London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\u201cThe only recorded confirmed case in East London this month is in Amalinda. Since January, there have been a total of 28 confirmed cases in East London. These include eight cases in January and February respectively, seven in March, and four in April, and one this month,\u201d Ndamase said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">He said it is important to note that COVID-19 was never declared over and has been present since March 2020. To stop the spread of the virus, people are urged to continue practicing the non-pharmaceutical measures of wearing masks and regular hand washing or using an alcohol-based sanitizer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Ndamase said the department encourages people, particularly the elderly and those with underlying conditions, to get the flu vaccine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Eastern Cape Health Department says that a social media message claiming there have been 26 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in East London since May 8 is fake 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This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.8 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fake news: Social media post claiming 26 cases of COVID-19 in May in East London | Mthatha Express<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/mthathaexpress\/fake-news-social-media-post-claiming-26-cases-of-covid-19-in-may-in-east-london-20240509\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fake news: Social media post claiming 26 cases of COVID-19 in May in East London\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Eastern Cape Health Department says that a social media message claiming there have been 26 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in East London since May 8 is fake news.\" 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