Hyderabad: Relaxation sought in Covid-19 dialer tone

Hyderabad: When there can be a relaxation in Lockdown-4, why not on Covid-19 'dialer tone,' ask denizens. The dialler tone which started with a 'coughing sound' slowly changed to simple advisory and continues to be an 'annoyance,' they say.

Following the outbreak in India, Department of Telecommunication had instructed the telecommunications companies to incorporate 30-second long necessary advisory information regarding Covid-19 to create awareness among people about the contagious pandemic and necessary guidelines to follow in order to arrest the spread of the coronavirus.

Many people are now resenting that the advisory tone is turning out to be an irritant and has a bearing on their mental health.

"When all the restrictions, imposed due to Covid-19 outbreak are gradually waning out and the city is limping back to normalcy, the recurring and unpleasant 30-second lCovid-19 advisory information' superseding every phone call should also be let go as it is causing hysteria especially when someone is making emergency calls," said Syed Shoukat Ali, a resident of Rajendranagar.

"People are tired of listening to the advisory ring tone on their phone every time they make a call. The advisory Covid-19 tone is consuming much of our time and sometimes irritates us," complains Mohammed Shoeb of Hussaini Alam.

Meanwhile, experts feel that now the focus should be primarily on following social distancing strictly and wearing masks. "Instead of repeating the same information the government should provide new information which would be interesting and less time consuming. Hearing the current dialer tone, we see a lot of people getting irritated and just ignoring it due to repetitions of the same message," said Dr Virinchi Sharma, MD, Physiatrist & Director, Manasa Hospital, Secunderabad.