Faizel Patel – 20/07/2020

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

As the COVID-19 pandemic infections continue to rise at a rapid rate, South Africans are once again being urged to verify news related to the virus before sharing it on social media and other platforms.

This comes after messages were widely circulated on messaging service WhatsApp on Sunday that Gift of the Givers founder Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman had succumbed to the Coronavirus and passed on.

The post was deemed to be fake news after Sooliman confirmed that he is alive and well.

“Rumours of my death are highly exaggerated,”

Sooliman told Radio Islam that someone had also made a mistake.

Earlier this month a journalist and member of the Ethekwini Security and Active Citizens Coalition told Radio Islam, the spreading of fake and unverified news about the COVID-19 virus has become a disease and pandemic itself.