Fact Check: Nationwide COVID-19 lockdown from October 12 and trains shut till Diwali?

Since the pandemic broke out, there has been a surge in the spread of misinformation. Social media platforms are being used to spread propaganda and fake news. Recently, a poster went viral claiming that a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown will be imposed in India from Tuesday, October 12. The message further claims that train services will remain shut in the country till Diwali .i.e. on November 4.

The viral poster that looks similar to a news channel update says "on the view of the third wave of Coronavirus, from tomorrow morning lockdown will be imposed." In the ticker section, it says that train services will be inoperational till Diwali.

Refuting the claim, Press Information Bureau (PIB) called it fake news and said that no such announcement has been made by the government regarding lockdown and train services.

"Claim: Due to the increase in the number of infected, a nationwide lockdown will be imposed from tomorrow morning and all train services will remain closed in the country till Diwali.PIB Fact Check: These claims are Fake. No such announcement has been made by the Central Government," PIB Fact Check tweeted.

India races towards 100 crore vaccinations

In fact, contrary to the claim, India has administered more than 95 crore covid vaccine doses and is heading towards the golden number of 100-crore doses. On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the country's COVID vaccination drive and stated, "This is just one example of the monumental effort put in by every stakeholder to ensure our fellow citizens get vaccinated. Kudos to each and every person who is making India's vaccination drive a success."

COVID cases in India

India reported 18,132 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours while the active cases stand at 2,27,347, which is the lowest in 209 days. During the same period, 21,563 people recover from the illness taking total recoveries to 3,32,93,478. The active cases account for less than 1 % of total cases, current at 0.6%, the lowest since March 2020, according to the health ministry. The weekly positivity rate is 1.53% while the daily positivity rate is 1.75%. 58.36 crore COVID tests have been conducted till now.