These posts are carried along with images from the recent protests of the Sri Lanka Teachers’ Association and the Sri Lanka Nurses’ Union protests. The captions of these photographs indicate that these deaths are caused due to the ongoing protests and the situation of public unrest.

The related posts:

Image Source: Facebook

Fact-checking of the above posts using the tool Google Reverse Image Search revealed that the origin of these images is with the current pandemic situation in Myanmar (formerly Burma). Further observations of these posts clarified that there had been original captions in Burmese language. The English translation of the caption reads; “22 people died of Covid-19 today… Images of dead bodies at the mortuary in Myawaddy hospital today.”

The related post:

Image Source: ‘Khit Thit Media‘ Facebook Page

The original photographs have been taken and posted on Facebook by “U Hla Tun”, Chairman of Myanmar Human Rescue Organisation on July 15, 2021. In his post, he stated that his organization’s volunteers have brought these dead bodies to Myawaddy, a town in Kayin State of South-Eastern Myanmar.

The related post:

Image Source: The Facebook User Account of “U Hla Tun”  

In addition, the same image with the same caption has been circulated on Vietnamese and Indonesian social media platforms as well, as confirmed by the “Viet Nam News”, the major English News Website in Vietnam, and “KENH VTC14”, a Vietnamese News Channel. They further report that the Vietnam Center for Handling Fake News – VAFC (Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information, Ministry of Information and Communications) confirms that these photographs are from Myanmar, and not from any other country.

Image Source: ‘Viet Nam News‘ News Website in Vietnam 

Therefore, it is confirmed that the above images circulating as the bodies of those dead and sealed due to the COVID-19 infection are not photographed in Sri Lanka or any other country, but in Myanmar nor do they relate to current incidents of protests in Sri Lanka.