“NYC man drops dead in middle of street — suspected coronavirus!”

As the death toll from COVID-19 clears 4,000 people globally, a scary blog post claims that a man in New York City collapsed on the street and died because of the disease caused by the coronavirus. 

“NYC man drops dead in middle of street — suspected coronavirus!” the headline says. 

It shows an image of someone lying flat on their back on a sidewalk with a mask covering their mouth and nose. Another image shows what looks like a medic leaning over the person. A 15-second video clip shows the same scene. 

The post goes on to say that an Asian man wearing a surgical mask passed out in the middle of a crowded street in Flushing Queens before he was “rushed to the hospital” and “believed to have died.”

“According to reports, the man was walking down the street, when he was suddenly overcome with a bout of coughing. He collapsed onto the floor, and after a few seconds, he stopped moving,” it says. “Officers quickly arrived on the scene, but seemed unwilling to physically assist the man, perhaps out of fear.”

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) 

“This is not true at all,” the New York City Police Department told PolitiFact in a statement. 

Though the blog post is undated, the department was able to identify the incident from the description and images. 

On March 3, officers responded to a 911 call to help a man in the department’s 109th precinct, which serves a northeast portion of Queens, including downtown Flushing and East Flushing. When officers arrived, they found a 25-year-old man who had lost consciousness and hit his head on the sidewalk. Medics brought him NewYork-Presbyterian hospital in stable condition. 

It was unrelated to the coronavirus, according to police. 

We rate this blog post False.