Covid contacts terrorise BBMP volunteers, doctors

The quarantine squad of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in Mahadevapura zone entrusted to enforce the 14-day home quarantine protocol are a distressed lot.

Across the city, BBMP volunteers are been threatened by the primary and secondary contacts of Covid-19 infected patients when they visit homes to enforce the quarantine guidelines laid down by the state government.

The BBMP volunteers who are on duty in Mahadevapura zone were being threatened by the primary and secondary contacts of infected patients.

"The primary and secondary contacts of infected patients argue as to why we are sending them to hospitals or Covid care centres. Some insist that they should be left at home. When we call the contacts, they slam the phone on our faces. In most cases, we are unable to assess the health condition of the people primarily because they snap our calls or switches off their phones," said Dr Seema, a member the swab testing team.

The contact tracing team of the BBMP takes down the travel history and contacts of the Covid positive patients and then the home quarantine squad enforces the home quarantine.

"We have registered over 60 complaints with the police. In one case, a patient who is supposed to be under the home quarantine took a bike and challenged us to stop. Every day, we encounter one or two such cases," a volunteer said.

In one of the cases a worker employed with the Kempegowda International Airport breached the home quarantine norms and abused the joint commissioner of the BBMP. He was later put under quarantine after a police complaint.

"We had to call the flying squad who tracked him to the airport. The problem is that the police too cannot take any action against them. They are helpless. The only thing that they do is to get the person tested again," a volunteer told The Hans India.

Some Covid-19 patients refuse to show their swab results and get into heated arguments with the volunteers.

"Yesterday, a resident in Mahadevapura argued with a doctor and ultimately we tested him again. Since the next result will come after three days the person has got a buffer of three days. The infected persons might be asymptomatic but he can still spread disease to others. Yesterday, we had to shoot the video of the person undergoing swab testing because he denied having been tested. His results were positive," a BBMP doctor said.