Two social media about the human metapneumovirus (HMPV) are being shared, which have gathered views in millions when this story was being written, mainly on Meta's image and video sharing platform Instagram.
The first claim featured a video report from the news channel Republic Bharat, which mentioned a purported six-day lockdown in Delhi due to the virus.
The other post also mentioned whether a lockdown would be imposed in India. The video stated that the spread of HMPV was similar to that of COVID-19 and equated the two.
(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)
Are the claims true?: No, the claims are false.
The Republic video dates back to 2021 when a six-day lockdown was imposed in Delhi to contain the spread of the Coronavirus.
The second video falsely equates the HMPV virus with COVID-19.
No lockdown for HMPV is being imposed in India as of 14 January.
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What we found: We checked both the claims separately and found the following.
Claim 1: We went through Republic Bharat's YouTube channel manually and found the bulletin in the "Ye Bharat Ki Baat Hai" playlist, a show hosted by journalist Syed Suhail.
The video was uploaded on 19 April 2021 with the title, "Now Delhi is 'locked'! Watch Ye Bharat Ki Baat Hai with Syed Suhail"
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