A woman in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho has been fined VND10 million (USD434.78) for spreading false news about the coronavirus epidemic.
The 29-year-old woman from Cai Rang District shared the information on her Facebook page, saying that up to 33 patients died of coronavirus at Cho Ray Hospital in HCM City.
The rumour has worried the public amid the virus outbreak.
At the police station, the woman from Ninh Kieu District said that she shared the information from another Facebook page. She did not know that this was the wrong information. She has removed the false news from her Facebook.
On February 18, authorities of the southern province of Hau Giang also fined another woman from Can Tho City VND7.5 million for the same violation. She shared the information that two workers at Lee & Man Paper Mill in Hau Giang died of coronavirus.
Several people, including those in Bac Ninh, Ninh Binh and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces previously had to pay fines for publishing fake news about coronavirus.
Source: Dtinews