MP: TikTok user who poked fun at masks tests Covid-19 +ve

Bhopal: A 25-year-old man, who in a TikTok video ridiculed the use of masks for protection against COVID-19, has tested positive for the disease in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district, an official said on Sunday.

Authorities at the hospital where he is admitted had to seize his mobile phone as he kept posting more videos from the isolation facility even after testing positive.

His condition is stable, Sagar’s Government Bundelkhand Medical College Dean Dr G S Patel told PTI.

In one of the videos, apparently shot after the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, the man was purportedly seen sitting on a bike and when someone asked him to wear a mask, he dismissed it saying, Is kapde ke tukde par kya bharosa rakhna, rakhna hai to us upar wale par rakho (why to trust a piece of cloth, keep faith in God).

In later part of the video, he was seen throwing a piece of cloth in the air while the song ‘Faya Kun, Faya Kun’, from the movie “Rockstar” played in the background.

Patel said the man came to the government hospital with complaints of cough and fever and tested positive for coronavirus on Friday.

This is the first COVID-19 case reported from Sagar district, the official said, adding that the man does not have any travel history.

Even after testing positive for the disease, he posted a video on TikTok from the isolation facility of the hospital where he is admitted.

In this video, he was seen sporting a mask and asking people to pray for him.

“Following complaint that the coronavirus patient shot the video from the quarantine centre and uploaded it through internet, we took his mobile phone in our custody,” Patel said.

After the man uploaded these videos on TikTok, several people mocked him for making fun of the mask.