Fact-check : Did The Hindu call COVID-19 coronavirus as ‘Indian virus’?

The Hindu, in its article on death toll in India due to Covid-19 coronavirus, referred to the virus as ‘Indian virus’.

After the tweet, netizens questioned Haider about the using “Indian virus” to describe COVID-19.

Toll

— Suhasini Haidar (@suhasinih) March 20, 2020

In the article shared by Suhasini Haider, National Editor and Diplomatic Affairs Editor, The Hindu, the article mentioned “Coronavirus| With one death in Iran, Indian virus toll touches five”. It would be surprising that The Hindu would refer to the virus as “Indian virus” when it originated in China’s Wuhan province. In fact, while it is well known now that the coronavirus infection had started and was spreading as early as November 2019, till January 14 2020, the Chinese authorities have claimed that the Covid-19 did not show human to human transmission.

Read: Wuhan coronavirus: A pandemic that was started in China, covered up by China but China thinks calling it Chinese is ‘racism’

Soon after, Haider deleted the tweet and posted another with text in her tweet edited. However, the headline of the article remained the same.

With one death in Iran, the toll of Indians from Coronavirus touches five. @the_hinduhttps://t.co/tJ0VCvQ0Uc

— Suhasini Haidar (@suhasinih) March 20, 2020

However, despite the badly worded headline, The Hindu article actually talks about the total death toll of the Indian citizens due to the deadly virus. To save themselves the embarrassment, what The Hindu could have written is “Coronavirus| With one death in Iran, India’s Covid-19 toll touches five”.