The Karnataka government had recently issued guidelines for home quarantine. The state government had said that mild to asymptomatic patients of COVID-19 would be placed under home quarantine. Now, according to the data of citizen quarantine squads in the city, around 23,000 people placed under home quarantine have provided incorrect addresses to authorities, it was reported.
Home quarantine was recommended for mild and asymptomatic patients to prevent a possible shortage of hospital beds as cases rise in Bengaluru. There were bound to be issues that would arise in implementation.
Home quarantine in Bengaluru sees violators providing false details
The government collects data of COVID-19 patients to keep a tab on their movement and where they are to minimise the risk of infection and to properly treat the patients. However, not everybody is eager to play fair and cooperate amid a global pandemic.
In a report by The New Indian Express, the citizens' quarantine squad in Bengaluru which is meant to oversee those under home quarantine have found that over 23,000 individuals have been providing false details to the authorities about where they are residing.
With over 62,297 under home quarantine in the Bengaluru Urban region, only 46, 113 people have provided accurate information and 23,184 in this dataset have provided false addresses in this dataset.
This proves risky as to the spread of infection, with the rate at 8% as on Monday in Karnataka and Bengaluru reporting the highest number of infections at 14,066 cases of COVID-19. Volunteers registered as citizen quarantine squad members are expected to track those under home quarantine and report violations to authorities. There are around 13,000 volunteers currently registered with the squad.
Home quarantine has recently been advised for inter-state travellers who have to observe a 14-day home quarantine regardless of where they've travelled from, mild and asymptomatic patients. The Government issued the order one the recommendation of experts who said that this would help prevent the overwhelming burden on the state's health infrastructure as cases rise.
While it's understandable why some would hesitate to provide their details and privacy even if it's to the government, this poses a threat to the spread of infection and containment, which is only growing harder to contain as cases rise day after day.
