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Several users have shared the on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>. Alt News has received several requests to fact-check the images on WhatsApp (+91 76000 11160) and on our\u00a0official Android application<\/a>.<\/p>\n The viral claim lists four cities – Wuhan, Seattle, Washington and New York along with five countries – France, Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan while claiming that “all worst affected coronavirus [Covid 19] cases are along the same Latitude 40\u00b0.”<\/p>\n It is important to keep in mind that, as per the US Geological Survey<\/a>,<\/em> at 38 degrees north latitude one degree of latitude is around 69 miles (111 kilometres). Therefore, large countries cannot be represented by a single latitude.<\/p>\n Alt News identified the most severely affected cities in the countries mentioned in the viral message using data from respective government websites.<\/p>\n As of March 13, data from Sant\u00e9 publique France<\/em><\/a>, national public health agency, revealed that the Grand Est. an<\/span> administrative region in northeastern France,<\/span> had the highest number of cases reported.<\/p>\n Similarly, Bergamo, a city in the Lombardy region, is the worst affected as per Ministero della salute<\/em><\/a>, Italy’s Ministry of Health.<\/p>\n On the same date, an infographic published by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)<\/em><\/a>, the official news agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran, illustrated the national capital Tehran as the most severely affected.<\/p>\n A March 12 report by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a><\/em> stated that Daegu Metropolitan City, the third-largest after Seoul, and Busan is the worst affected region.<\/p>\n Nippo<\/em><\/a>, a Japan-based media platform reported that Hokkaid\u014d was reported most numbers confirmed virus carriers as of March 12. Nippo’s<\/em> report was created based on data by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n The latitude coordinates of every place mentioned in the viral post are as follows:<\/p>\n Channel News Asia (CNA)<\/em>, Singapore-based news channel, has built an interactive map<\/a> that is keeping a track of confirmed cases, reported deaths and patients recovered across the world. The 12 most affected countries as of March 16 doesn\u2019t include Japan, which is one of the places shown on the viral map image.<\/p>\n While it is true that countries listed above are from the northern hemisphere, Shaw’s statement that “southern hemisphere seems to be unaffected” is false. The screenshot from CNA’s<\/em> interactive maps shows some of the countries affected in the southern hemisphere. Data for each country can be viewed by zooming in in the interactive map<\/a>.<\/p>\n Therefore the claim that the cities worst affected by coronavirus cases are along latitude 40\u00b0 is false. If you would like to learn how GPS coordinates work, watch this explainer video by Brainstuff<\/em>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/03\/Twitter.jpg\")
<\/p>\nClaim is ridiculous<\/h4>\n
Most affected cities in the above-listed countries.<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Are these cities along Latitude 40\u00b0?<\/h5>\n
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