A person in Texas was arrested for falsely claiming in a social media post to be infected with the coronavirus, prosecutors said Monday.
The unidentified person allegedly said over the weekend that they tested positive for the virus at Tyler County Hospital, according to the Tyler County District Attorney’s Office.
The DA’s office charged the person with circulating a false report.
In a separate Facebook post, the DA’s office warned that one can be charged with a crime for “knowingly communicating, initiating, or circulating a false report/false alarm of COVID-19 that one knows is false or baseless.”
As of Tuesday The Lone Star State had recorded 64 cases of coronavirus, according to the Texas Department of State and Health Services.
None of those 64 cases have come out of Tyler County.