Covid patients dodge residence closure

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru

Covid-infected people in Bengaluru have been requesting the healthcare personnel, who come to collect swabs for RT-PCR (Real Time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests not to mention their addresses.

The reason is that a positive result would lead to the information being passed on to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), who would then seal off their residence. Others who suspect being infected with Covid opt for Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs), which are available in pharmacies but are less accurate than RTPCR.

However, two positive RAT results in 24 hours are usually quite accurate. People said it would inconvenience uninfected people in the house, who may have commitments such as offline school or work. This is despite the civic body mandating that those living with Covid-positive patients should also remain quarantined.

Private lab personnel who collect swabs, often at private residences, said that the distrust goes back to the first wave when authorities were sending patients to institutional quarantine facilities, some of which lacked very basic facilities like running water. One such employee, on condition of anonymity, said that people do request occasionally to skip the address and he had complied a few times.

“We don’t usually do it. It’s pretty rare. I, perhaps, have done it two to three times on request of people I knew well. Others may be doing the same,” he said. “The issue during the first wave was that they used to carry off positive patients to some ward.

Now it is the sealing of the apartment. People can’t go out. Neighbours will avoid you. The process is that I submit the test and if the outcome is positive, then the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) is alerted. They pass on the information to the state government, which in turn gives the information to BBMP,” he added.

An engineering student, who did not wish to be named, said that he had initially returned a false negative on an RAT, which was followed by two positives. “I needed an RT-PCR and the official document that comes with it to be able to email it to my Head of Department to request official permission to miss offline classes and a test and take the latter in the future.

However, we requested that our addresses should not be included in the form since a closure of the apartment would lead to a lot of issues,” he said. He added that his mother also got infected. “We have both been recovering well,” he disclosed.

The mother of the student said that since she was older she was prescribed antiviral medication, unlike her son. “We have quarantined ourselves. Any interaction we have with uninfected persons is while maintaining physical distancing and wearing a mask,” she said.