A large presence of emergency vehicles led to rumours spreading like wildfire on Chinese social media about a coronavirus case at a Richmond restaurant.
The fire department, ambulance and police all raced to an incident during rush hour Wednesday at a building in the 6900 block of Elmbridge Way, just west of Gilbert Road.
The emergency services were, in fact, attending a fire, which turned out to be connected to the discovery of a “clandestine drug laboratory,” according to the RCMP.
However, that didn’t stop the WeChat rumour mill from producing a fake story about the ambulance being there to pick up a patient living in the same building as the Chinese restaurant – because they had the coronavirus.
Needless to say, managers at the restaurant in question, Fortune Terrace Chinese Cuisine, were furious with the rumours.
Jason Yang, Fortune Terrace’s director, told the Richmond News that his business was seriously hurt.
“Rumours and false information have gone viral on social media. I received multiple phone calls from clients asking if there is a patient with COVID-19 living inside the building,” said Yang, who just spent the whole morning clarifying the situation to people.
“I tried to share news from credible English news outlets on WeChat. But negative news is fast-spreading, which is hard to stop.”
According to Yang, the local Chinese restaurant industry has already slowed down as people avoid social gatherings due to COVID-19 fears. Unfortunately, this incident “added fuel to the fire.”
“We are already struggling. Rumours like this are going to make things worse,” said Yang.
The News tracked down a David Yang, one of the people on WeChat who posted the misinformation.
David claimed that he was merely re-posting someone else’s comments, which included pictures of the emergency vehicles.
Ironically, he said he was a regular customer of the restaurant.
And to show his support for Chinese restaurants, he told the News he will dine out at Fortune Terrace tonight.
Whether he gets served or not remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, the restaurant’s director, Yang, urged people to think twice before posting unchecked information.
