Hollywood actor Daniel Radcliffe has become the first star to be caught up in a coronavirus hoax. A tweet from a fake BBC account, which was live for nearly seven hours and instantly went viral, suggested that the Harry Potter star had been diagnosed with COVID-19. Representatives of the star, however, said the story is "not true".

The tweet by a fake Twitter account under the name @BBCNewsTonight read, “BREAKING: Daniel Radcliffe tests positive for coronavirus. The actor is said to be the first famous person to be publicly confirmed." The tweet has now been deleted and the account was terminated for breaking community guidelines and codes.

Over 3,500 people around the world have lost their lives to the disease so far and more than 113,000 cases have been reported.