Viral Photo of COVID-19 Isolation Center NOT from Ghana

Some Twitter posts that show two men sitting and eating on the floor in a hospital setting is making rounds on social media. The posts claim that it is a scene in an isolation center in Ghana.

One of the tweets for instance captions the photo; “Isolation Centre In Ghana” while another tweet also captioned it “I now understand the reason why the figures are rising. #Anas Please you only covered the cure aspect. Kindly check out the figures too #Anas #COVID19 #Ghana.”

The photo has also been shared on some Facebook pages in Ghana.

Fact-checkghana.com has verified the photo and finds that it was not taken in Ghana.

Explanation: According to the Ghana Health Service, there are more than 4,000 COVID-19 patients in various isolation and treatment centers all across the country.

Persons who are in isolation or are being treated for COVID-19 have the cost of their feeding taken care of by the government and so it is possible for persons who are in isolation in the country to be seen eating at the center.

However, to verify that the photo that is going round on social media is indeed from Ghana, fact-checkghana.com used Google Images to conduct a reverse image search.

The result of the search showed that the photo was shared on Facebook at 1:49pm on June 24, 2020 by a Nigerian by name Suleiman Falalu with the caption, “This is Kaduna State Isolation Center”. This post has been shared over 1,600 times.

The Ghanaian twitter user who claimed it was an isolation center in Ghana made his post on June 25, 2020 at 11:24pm; more than a day after the original photo was shared in Nigeria.

We also found that more photos from the center were shared in some Nigerian blog publications including Warritatafo and Newzandar.

Fact-checkghana.com therefore concludes that the photo was not taken in Ghana but rather Nigeria.

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Supported by STAR Ghana with funding from UKAID and the European Union

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