A fake Twitter account created panic among Harry Potter fans by claiming that actor Daniel Radcliffe had fallen ill with coronavirus. A bogus account, with the handle @BBCNewsTonight, spread the rumour. The handle links back to an old BBC.com page and is not affiliated with the British news organization.
Representatives for the 30-year-old actor have assured The New York Post that the rumour is "not true". The original tweet has since been taken down but had garnered more than 1,000 likes by Tuesday afternoon.
The now-deleted tweet from @BBCNewsTonight read, "BREAKING: Daniel Radcliffe tests positive for coronavirus. The actor is said to be the first famous person to be publicly confirmed." Fans went into a frenzy in reaction to the news that their beloved former boy wizard could be in medical jeopardy.
Radcliffe, best known for playing the most famous 'half-blood wizard' in the Harry Potter film series, will next be seen in Escape From Pretoria, which tells the true story of political prisoners Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee (Daniel Webber).
The frenzy over the fake news comes at a time when the fear of coronavirus continues to mount. By Tuesday, the reported case number was at more than 118,000 worldwide. Over 3,500 people around the world have lost their lives to the disease so far. The number of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in India is at 60 currently.
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