This archive report was first published on 20 June 2020.
On June 16, a false post claiming that Dr. Dénis Mukwege, a 2018 Nobel laureate, resigned from COVID-19 response teams in DR Congo due to being ordered to report non-COVID-19 deaths as COVID-19 related, went viral on Facebook and WhatsApp.
However, Dr. Mukwege has denied these claims, stating that he resigned on June 10 due to the lack of laboratories for testing, a lax attitude to social distancing, porous borders, and the return of thousands of DR Congo citizens from neighboring countries without being quarantined.
According to Dr. Mukwege, these factors decreased the effectiveness of the team's strategy, prompting him to resign and devote himself to treating an influx of patients at the Panzi Hospital, which is run by his foundation.
Dr. Mukwege's spokesperson told the BBC that any statement not appearing on his official social media pages and websites is fake, and that his resignation statement does not mention being forced to declare negative coronavirus cases as positive.
