MOH has not issued Office Memo stating compulsory holiday in 4 states due to COVID-19

We received a viral image on our WhatsApp number 9049053770 for Fact Check which claimed that Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as issued an office memorandum declaring compulsory holiday for the states of Maharashtra, Sikkim, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.

The viral government office memorandum mention’s that, as a step towards  containing the COVID-19 disease Ministry of Health and Family Welfare declares holidays from the period of 14 March 2020 to 21 March 2020. It also said that this holiday is mandatory for all schools, colleges, educational institutes and workplace having more than 10 employees. In case of any breach there will a charge of Rs. 5000 per day applicable on the breacher.

Fact Check-

We started our investigation with a simple keyword search on Google which resulted us with a tweet on 13th March 2020 by the official PIB India account. The tweet reads “An office memorandum regarding declaration of holidays in states, in wake of #Coronavirus is widely getting circulated on #WhatsApp. #PIBFactCheck: No such clarification has been issued by @MoHFW_INDIA.”

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This has been retweeted by PIB India as well claiming that this memorandum is  False. The Ministry of Health also tweeted the PDF issued by PIB on their official Twitter account.

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We also found the official press release by PIB issued on 13th March 2020 clarifying that the viral office memorandum claiming mandatory holidays in  Maharashtra, Sikkim, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh due to the COVID-19 outbreak is Fake and has not been issued by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Conclusion- Fact Crescendo found the above post to be False. The viral office memorandum claiming mandatory holidays in Maharashtra, Sikkim, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh due to the COVID-19 outbreak is Fake and has not been issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.