This image of a child boarding an ambulance was taken in Vietnam, not the Philippines

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 18, 2021 at 10:49
2 min read
By AFP Philippines

A photo has been shared tens of thousands of times in online posts that claim it shows a coronavirus-infected child dressed in a hazmat suit travelling alone to a hospital in the Philippines. The claim is false: the image has been captured from a video filmed in Vietnam -- not the Philippines.

The photo was posted here on Facebook on August 12, 2021. It has been shared more than 40,000 times.

It shows a child dressed in a hazmat suit stepping onto an ambulance.

“This five-year-old girl, who is Covid-19 positive, got on an ambulance by herself to be brought to PGH," the photo's Tagalog-language caption reads in part.

"PGH" refers to the Philippine General Hospital, a public hospital in the capital Manila.

Screenshot of misleading post taken on August 17, 2021

The misleading post circulated online after health authorities in the Philippines noted an increase in Covid-19 cases recorded among children in August, according to this government report.

The photo was also shared alongside a similar claim here on Facebook and here on Twitter.

The claim is false: the photo was not taken in the Philippines.

Reverse image and keyword searches found the image corresponds to a frame from this 44-second video posted on Facebook.

It was shared on June 24 by the Ho Chi Minh Center for Disease Control.

The video's Vietnamese-language caption states in part: "On the afternoon of June 24, 2021, the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control received a video taken by Nurse Nguyen Thanh Truc -- an epidemic prevention worker at Phong Phu Commune Health Station, Binh Chanh District -- showing a five-year-old girl.

"The child boarded the ambulance of Binh Chanh District Hospital alone to go to Trung Vuong Hospital for COVID-19 treatment."

Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading posts (L) and its corresponding frame from the Facebook video (R):

A closer analysis of the video shows the ambulance bears a logo that translates to English as: “Binh Chanh district hospital”.

Below is a screenshot with the logo highlighted in red by AFP:

Further keyword searches found the video was also published with the same details here by the Vietnamese media organisation Tuoi Tre News on June 25, 2021.

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