RAWALPINDI The Bank of Punjab has refuted the claim that “no employee at any” branch had tested positive and all branches remain “open and fully operative”. According to reports, a screenshot of a purported internal email disclosing that a bank in Rawalpindi was closed after an employee tested positive for the novel coronavirus, Covid-19, has been shared on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. The claim is false; the bank said in a statement that “no employee at any” branch had tested positive for Covid19, and that all branches remained “open and fully operative”. The BOP shared a statement on Facebook on March 19 to deny the closure. “News and rumors are being spread on social media that some employees of a BOP branch have tested positive for Covid-19. BOP has taken strong notice of these fake news and clarifies that no employee at any BOP branch of office has tested positive for Covid19,” the bank said. The manager of the BOP’s Rawalpindi branch, Khawaja Rashid, also denied the claim. “All staff are present today and working and none of our staff members went for coronavirus tests. All news circulating on social media in this regard are false,” he told the foreign news agency AFP by phone on March 24.— Agencies
