India News | Punjab Minister Launches Drive to Counter Misinformation About Coronavirus

Chandigarh, Sep 4 (PTI) Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Friday launched an awareness campaign to counter misinformation about coronavirus on social media.

Launching the drive, Sidhu said a stigma and discrimination have been attached with the disease which needed to be addressed immediately.

Also Read | Uttarakhand High Court Stays Arrest of Woman Who Accused BJP MLA Mahesh Negi of Rape.

Sidhu, according to an official statement here, said the campaign will be conducted by the Punjab government in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Besides counselling, it is necessary that reliable and accurate information regarding COVID-19 is provided to all patients so that they do not fall for misinformation, Sidhu said.

Also Read | Actress Zaara Yesmin Enthral Fans With the Announcement of Her New Song Kandhe Ka Woh Til.

The Punjab minister said the campaign also aims at providing relief to the patients suffering from mental stress.

Asking people not to believe in rumours being circulated on social media, Sidhu said strict action will be taken against those behind it.

Divulging more about the campaign, the statement quoting Dr Manisha Mandal, state Project Officer of the UNDP, said there is a lot of misinformation being circulated, which necessitated such a campaign.

Several rumours, including the alleged organ harvesting of coronavirus patients, have posed a new challenge to the Punjab Health Department as people in some villages are preventing medical teams from collecting samples, officials had said on Wednesday.

Health authorities have appealed to people not to fall prey to such canards and get themselves tested for early detection of the infection.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)