“Covid is on its way out,” said Harsh Vardhan, India’s health minister, in early March. But, little more than a month later, a second wave of infections has thrown the country into chaos. 

Record numbers of more than 300,000 new Covid-19 cases are being reported daily, hospitals are so overwhelmed they are unable to accept new patients, oxygen and medicine supplies are depleted, and people are dying without medical care.

Over the past few weeks, as the nation’s death toll has exceeded 200,000 people, many have taken to social media to ask for help and seek information about intensive care beds and vital oxygen supplies. Others have volunteered their time, putting in long hours to disseminate reliable information that can help desperate patients and relatives. 

However, online misinformation has received a corresponding boost. Rajneil Kamath of the fact-checking initiative NewsChecker says that the organization’s workload has doubled in the past month and that it is receiving dozens of false claims to debunk every day.