At a time when India continues to report record high cases of Wuhan coronavirus every day, a complete lapse of administration and lethargy of the people has come to light in Bengaluru as over 3000 Covid positive patients have gone missing with the patients switching off their phones.
In a shocking case of a complete lapse of administration in Karnataka, state Revenue Minister R Ashoka has revealed that over 3,000 infected patients have gone missing in Bengaluru with many switching off their phone in a bid to make them untraceable. The Minister claimed that the missing people are spreading the disease.
To put things into perspective, Karnataka on Thursday recorded 35,024 cases of the Wuhan coronavirus with Bengaluru alone recording 19,637 cases. The missing 3,000 patients have the potential to cause a tsunami of cases in a state which is firmly gripped with the deadly wings of the Chinese virus.
While R Ashoka stated that the Bengaluru Police has been tasked with tracing the patients, there is little information in the public domain on the strategy to locate the patients.
“We are giving free medicines to the people, which can control 90 per cent of cases, but they (covid-infected people) have switched off their mobile phones,” said Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar while adding that the issue of the infected going missing has been going on for the past one year.
He added, “I feel that at least 2,000 to 3,000 people in Bengaluru have switched off their phones and left their houses. We don’t know where they have gone.”
While the Karnataka administration has to be held responsible for such a travesty, it is unfortunate to see people behave with such aplomb immaturity and carelessness. The patients have the ability to infect scores of people which may well turn fatal for somebody and end up ruining families. People must cooperate with the authorities if India were to stand any chance to defeat the second wave of the Chinese virus.
Last week, Karnataka, headed into a 14-day complete lockdown in order to curb the rapidly rising cases of the virus. With Bengaluru, being the IT capital of the country, it is paramount that the city defeats the virus at the earliest so that economic activities in the Garden City begin if India were to register a record high growth rate in the next fiscal year.