Adam Housley may have been a former baseball player, but the athlete-turned-award-winning journalist took a wild swing and a miss on Thursday. He was forced to delete a tweet which claimed a million body bags were being delivered to South Africa, in fear of the devastating impact COVID-19 could have on our population.

COVID-19: A million body bags for South Africa? Nope…

However, it would seem Housley has struck-out on this one. He has since apologised for getting his information wrong, and causing widespread panic across South Africa. This is the offending post:

What went wrong?

Housley claimed a South African government source had led him down the garden path, giving him erroneous information on the subject. During his attempts to backtrack, he waxed lyrical about Mzansi:

“I have deleted my South African tweet. It is being completely misunderstood. If you’ve followed me for years, you know South Africa was one of my most favourite places I’ve ever been. I met [Desmond] Tutu and some amazing people. I have been counting the days to take my kids back. “In no way was I attacking South Africa or their attempts to fight COVID-19. I was hoping to get them more help that other countries that haven’t got. It was presented as a fact from a government source. There was no lie and no intention to disrespect. I apologise if it was taken that way.” Adam Housley

COVID-19 claim returns to haunt US journalist

To reiterate, the answer is no: South Africa has not ordered a million body bags to deal with the devastating effects of coronavirus. Meanwhile, Housley spent the rest of the afternoon apologising…