Bengaluru shocker: Around 3000 covid patients go missing, phones switched off

Karnataka Revenue Minister R Ashoka on Thursday revealed that around 2,000 to 3,000 COVID-19 infected patients have gone missing in Bengaluru as they have switched off their phones and vacated their houses.

Speaking to reporters, Ashoka said, “2,000-3,000 COVID19 positive patients have switched off their phones and vacated their homes. This could lead to the spread of coronavirus. Later they have to run for ICU beds. Police is trying to track them.”

“We are giving free medicines to people which can control 90 per cent of the cases, but they have switched off their mobile phones. They reach the hospitals in a critical stage to desperately look for ICU beds. This is what is happening now.”

“Many of the infected people are either not informing the officials about their whereabouts or have switched off their phones,” he added.

Urging COVID-19 positive people to keep their phones switched on so that the police can trace them, the minister said, “I pray to them with folded hands that COVID cases will only increase due to this (behaviour). It is wrong when you reach for ICU beds at the last moment.”