Fact Check: Did Nostradamus predict Coronavirus pandemic 500 years ago?

COIVD-2019 pandemic has led to a global lockdown affecting several countries and their economies. As of today, the total number of Corona cases has crossed 700,000.

In the midst of this, several social media users are claiming that 16th-century French astrologer Nostradamus has predicted this current pandemic in 1551.

The claim is being shared as a picture along with text which reads: "There will be a twin year (2020) from which will arise a queen (corona) who will come from the east (China) and who will spread a plague (virus) in the darkness of night, on a country with 7 hills (Italy) and will transform the twilight of men into dust (death), to destroy and ruin the world. It will be the end of the world economy as you know it."

The claim is going viral on Facebook and WhatsApp.

Fact Check:

The claim is FALSE.

Michel de Nostredame was a French astrologer, physician, and a reputed seer, whose poetic quatrains- predictions about future events were published in a book titled Les Prophesies. The book was first published in 1555 and has rarely been out of print since his death.

The viral prediction about coronavirus was NOT found in the quatrain form, and also it could NOT be found in the book "Les Propheties". This claim has been created by someone to make people believe that Nostradamus predicted this pandemic.

Here is the online edition of Les Propheties by Nostrasamus, where we can read the quatrains from the book.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Les_Propheties

Therefore, the claim that Nostradamus predicted COVID -19 pandemic 500 years ago is FALSE.