Officials in Karnataka fold their hands and urge the Covid patients to move to CCCs

Bengaluru: As Covid-19 patients are hesitant to follow the instructions, doctors health workers and police officials are lining up before the uncooperative patients, pleading them with folded hands and on knees to abide by the rules.

The government guidelines do not permit doctors and police officials to use force. Therefore, this new approach has been taken for maximum impact. It is used to get the patients indoors or to move to Covid Care Centres (CCCs).

Even tahsildars and executive officers of taluk panchayats are teaming up with taluk task force members for this exercise. On Thursday, a task force consisting of the tahsildar, executive officer, taluk medical officer and others went to Bavarahalli, Bangarpet taluk, Kolar district, where five Covid patients were refusing to go to CCC.

The patients said that the facilities in CCCs were poor, whereas, they had separate rooms for isolation at home. District health officer, Dr Saraswati tried to explain about the facilities at CCC to the five patients. Even the officials put in all their efforts to persuade them but all went in vain. Finally, tahsildar Dayananda M urged his team members to plead to them with folded hands. The patients then agreed to this.

Many other parts of the state are reporting similar scenes and their videos are going viral on social media. Dr Eswar Savadi, chief medical officer at government hospital, Gangavathi, Koppal district, stated that there is resistance not only from the patients but from their family members too.

He said, “Infected people don’t want to get admitted in hospitals or CCCs because they are not serious about the disease. Many believe they can treat themselves at home. We have encountered innumerable situations where family members of patients argue with us saying the patient can be treated at home.”

“We didn’t have to plead like this during the first wave. Now, sensational news reports on deaths are playing on patients’ minds. People believe that if they go to the hospital, they won’t get quality treatment”, said a senior police officer from Dharwad.