Contact of a person-tested-positive had given DC’s mobile number
MYSURU:
The lengths to which persons being tested for Covid, or their contacts, go to hide their whereabouts can be seen in a case where a contact of a person who tested positive had given the mobile number of the Mysuru district Deputy Commissioner!
The quarantine watch call centre thought it was calling the contact, but instead got the Deputy Commissioner on the line!
Earlier, some Kannada TV channels had ‘jumped the gun’, so to speak, and said that the person who had given the number of the DC had tested positive for the virus.
Clarifying the episode in messages to thebengalurulive, Mysuru DC Abhiram G Sankar said the man was a primary contact, not a positive case. He said, “We’re not planning any criminal action…The intention is not to punish but to make people more aware and avoid falling into the stigma trap.”
Asked about the identity of the person, Sankar said it was “just another incident that indicates that people are apprehensive of being branded as positive or contacts.”
The DC clarified that he had not spoken to any TV channel about the matter. He felt too much should not be read into the incident. “To be honest, it could be mischief, a clerical mistake or a plain harmless prank. Whatever it might be, it’s not serious enough to warrant an investigation,” Sankar concluded.
