Was a COVID-19 negative head constable wrongly quarantined as positive?

Team Udayavani, May 8, 2020, 1:51 PM IST

Chamrajnagar: A head constable working at the Begur police station at Bengaluru was allegedly mistakenly tested as COVID-19 positive and quarantined.

Narrating his ordeal the head constable stated that the incident has left his and other members of his family, who too were quarantined, mentally scarred.

Speaking to Udayavani, the head constable stated that it all started after he was chosen as one of the random individuals in Hongasandra Road, Bengaluru to be tested for the virus on May 1. Later, he had left with his family for Beltur to visit his ailing grandfather.

While in Beltur, he received a call from the police station informing him that his sample has tested positive for the virus. Shocked, he returned to Bengaluru the same day leaving his family in Beltur.

He was admitted to Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru and claims that he learnt of his report being misplaced with that of a COVID-19 positive patient on May 6.

Another test on May 6 reported negative, however as he was admitted to a COVID-19 hospital, he was quarantined in a hotel.

The worse part of all of this, he says, was that rumours started to circulate about him that he had visited a bar in Bengaluru and shops and refuelling stations in Chamrajnagar. All of which he claims is not true as he is a teetotaller and did not visit Chamrajnagar during the period it was alleged that he did.

He says that he did not believe that he has the virus even when they called him and said that it is confirmed while he was in Beltur, explaining that he had never travelled anywhere since the pandemic started and never came in contact with anyone that he doesn’t know.

He adds that he doesn’t know whose fault it was. He wasn’t shown his report and was told that there was a problem with the serial number of his report.

He says he is saddened by the fact that he was the reason for so many people he knew and is related to had suffer immensely. About 38 people in Chamrajnagar and 35 in Bengaluru have been quarantined because of him.

Presently, he says everything is fine for him as those who were quarantined are out. He has apologised to all those who had to suffer because of him and thanked that deities Beligiri Ranganatha and Mahadeshwara for ending his trauma soon.