A medical staff holds a COVID-19 vaccine to be administered. Photo: Xinhua

A Nanjing netizen in East China's Jiangsu Province was detained by the local police for seven days after the netizen spread rumors that COVID-19 vaccines have caused death, which aroused panic in the public, Nanjing police authorities said via its official Sina Weibo on Tuesday.

The netizen, surnamed Pan, posted that "COVID-19 vaccines have caused deaths" on a short video platform, which caused a panic in the public. The Nanjing authorities confirmed that this was fake news.

Pan told the police officers that she had known that the COVID-19 vaccines had no problems and she was going to inoculate herself. However, after noticing videos about people lining up to take the jabs, she intentionally spread the rumors saying that "COVID-19 vaccines have caused death" in order to win more attention from the internet.

Most netizens replied to the news saying that anyone who spread rumors should be punished.

The police officers reminded all citizens to respect science and don't spread rumors, and those who intentionally spread fake news about the vaccines will be punished seriously.