Over 30 COVID-19 patients untraceable in city

• Officials find it tough to trace those who tested positive due to incorrect contact details
• Henceforth, Aadhaar Card, Voter ID or PAN Card mandatory before swab collection

Mysore/Mysuru: Over 25 to 30 COVID-19 patients in city who were sent to home quarantine are untraceable as they had given wrong contact numbers to the monitoring officials while others gave wrong address.

“Every day, staffers are unable to trace people whose names are included in the list of home isolation patients after they tested positive,” said Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar.

Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning, he said that social distancing is the only way to contain the spread of the Coronavirus and those coming in contact with the positive patients are at risk of being infected. “Even if we manage to trace the patients, it will be an onerous task to trace those who came in their contact. There is a danger of these people roaming the streets and denizens living in the vicinity not knowing anything. People should be more responsible,” the DC said.

‘We are finding it tough to track those who tested positive due to incorrect contact details. Adding to our woes, wrong addresses furnished by those coming for testing made it even more difficult to trace the patients and their primary contacts,” he said.

There have been over 25 to 30 cases of patients dodging the authorities through different means in Mysuru district. “Our officials have found out that when the throat swabs are collected, people have given wrong address, wrong telephone numbers, 9-digit phone numbers and even phone numbers of other persons. We have found three patients in Agrahara giving wrong addresses. In some cases, they have switched off their mobile phones or would have given wrong contact details and incorrect mobile numbers. This has made it almost impossible for us to trace them,” Abhiram Sankar said.

To avoid these issues, the District Administration has made it mandatory for people to produce their Aadhaar Card or Voter ID, PAN Card or any other valid identity card while collecting the details before swab tests. “We have asked officers to ask the person to give a missed call to the officer’s mobile phone to eliminate the chances of incorrect phone numbers,” he said.