Covid patients ‘missing’

GRAPPLING with the unprecedented spike in Covid cases, Karnataka is facing another challenge: tracking and tracing of 2 000 to 3 000 Covid positive patients who have “gone missing”.

R Ashoka, State Revenue Minister and vice-chairperson of the Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority, said he had already directed the state police to track and trace missing Covid patients.

“At least 2 000 to 3 000 people in Bengaluru have gone off our radar by switching off their phones and left their houses. We don’t know where they have gone,” he said.

Bengaluru has become the epicentre of the viral spread ever since the pandemic broke out, often contributing a minimum of 50% to the state’s overall tally of Covid patients, fatalities and nearly two-third of patients in ICUS.

“With most of these patients switching off their mobile phones, the Health Department is not able to trace them and most of them are also not available at their given addresses; it is construed as they are ‘missing’. Certainly there is a potential threat for these missing patients. These patients can turn out to be super-spreaders,” Ashoka warned.

He said the state had to rope in police as they required expertise to track switched off mobile phones.

The minister said the state government was giving free medicines to people, which can control 90% of cases, but these Covid-19-infected people have switched off their cellphones.

“Some of them reach hospitals at a critical stage and desperately look for intensive care unit beds. This is what is contributing more to the already existing confusion,” he said.

Ashoka appealed to those who have tested positive for the disease to keep their cellphones on so the official responsible for contact tracing and follow-ups could reach them.

“I pray to them with folded hands that Covid-19 cases will only increase due to this. It is wrong when you try for ICU beds at the last moment,” the minister said.

The Karnataka government increased contact tracing activity after it was found officials in Bengaluru and other districts were tracing only four contacts per infected person; guidelines mandate at least 20. |