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FACT CHECK: Have Game Cigars Been Discontinued After An Entire Factory Contracted COVID-19?

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An image shared on Facebook claims Game Cigars have been discontinued due to a COVID-19 outbreak at a factory that produces them.

Verdict: False

There is no evidence Game Cigars have been discontinued. A spokesperson for Game Cigars confirmed the post’s claim is “completely false.”

Fact Check:

The image being shared shows what appears to be a Google-generated summary of an article published on Street Juice TV, a website that describes itself as the “headquarters for all the juice spilled in these streets.” The article, titled “ATTENTION STONERS! Game Cigars Discontinued After Entire Factory Contracted Coronavirus,” features a 32-second video of a man walking into a convenience store, where a cashier tells him not to buy Game Cigars because the “warehouse that makes the Games, everybody got coronavirus and they shut it down.”

However, the Daily Caller News Foundation didn’t find any credible reporting about Game Cigars being discontinued. There is no mention of products being discontinued due to the coronavirus on the Game Cigars website. The cigars also appear to still be marketed on the website.

While Swedish Match, the company that manufactures Game Cigars, did temporarily suspend production at its Dominican Republic plants from March 23 to April 6, the move was precautionary “in light of restrictions recently announced by the authorities in the Dominican Republic to prevent a wider spread of the coronavirus,” according to a statement from the company. The statement also noted that, to Swedish Match’s knowledge, no employee had tested positive for COVID-19 at the time. Swedish Match announced that it resumed limited operations in the Dominican Republic on April 7.

“The factory in the Dominican Republic is open and we are making Game Cigars,” a spokesperson for Game Cigars said in an email to the DCNF. “There is no basis to the rumor that production has been discontinued.”