The Chittoor district officials, who are already trudging under pressure in view of the sharp spike in the COVID-19 cases, have a Herculean task at hand now as many people who have been tested positive for the virus remain untraceable.
A conservative estimate suggests that as many as 236 COVID-19 patients have tiptoed out from the watch of the officials in the last ten days after their test results were confirmed positive.
The officials now fear that the patients could be roaming around, spreading the virus acting as ‘invisible spreaders’.
The fact came to light after the officials and ward volunteers found that the persons in question had furnished wrong telephone numbers and erroneous addresses while submitting their swab samples for testing.
Fake address, phone numbers
“Even outsiders are required to mention a local address when they submit their samples for testing. The ward volunteers concerned trace them if the samples are tested positive. The issue surfaced when the ward volunteers found the address given were fake,” a senior official told The Hindu. “Now, none knows where they are. They are acting now invisible spreaders,” he said.
‘It amounts to crime’
Meanwhile, the district administration has alerted the health, police and civic officials for tracing the patients.
“Those who conveniently went out of the watch of the administration do not know that it is a crime under the Pandemic Act. We are leaving no stone unturned to trace them,” the official added.
Now, the officials are contemplating to verify the phone numbers of those who submit samples for testing on the spot by making One Time Password (OTP) mandatory.
