Don’t play hide-and-seek by switching off mobile phones, ADC tells Corona positive patients

Mysore/Mysuru: While Union and State Governments are trying to check the galloping COVID-19 cases, people who tested Corona positive were playing hide-and-seek with the District Administration by furnishing wrong information, rued Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Dr. B.S. Manjunatha Swamy. 

The District Administration has stepped up RT-PCR testing for speedy detection of Corona positive cases and for early treatment. For this reason, the number of free COVID Testing Centres has been increased.  

Once the test results come, the COVID-19 Control Room staff inform the people about they testing positive. But most of the citizens switch off their mobile phones and go into hiding once they come to know that they have tested positive, he said adding that the other set of people would simply inform that they would prefer home quarantine since they don’t have cough or fever, but are not ready to get admitted to COVID-19 Care Centres or District Hospitals.  

This attitude of people has become a big headache for the District Health Department Officers as they don’t know whether those Corona positive patients had taken proper medicine from doctors or not. Tracking them was a difficult task as many give wrong addresses or simply switch off their mobile phones fearing hospitalisation, he added.

The Additional DC said cooperation of Corona positive patients was must to track down secondary contacts and subject them to RT-PCR testing. This will check further spreading of the contagion to others. Therefore, citizens must furnish correct address at the time of giving the swab for testing for the benefit of all, he noted. The citizens should leave it to doctors to decide whether they required hospitalisation or home isolation depending upon the severity of the disease. Since medicines are available to treat Coronavirus, people must consult doctors instead of self-medication, he added. 

It may be recalled, last year, a person had given the mobile number of the then Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar at the time of testing. Later, when the concerned staff called that number to inform him about testing positive, they came to know that the person had given the DC’s number.