An increasing number of people experiencing flu-like symptoms are isolating themselves at home, distorting the actual rate of infection
Venkatesh Murthy, a college lecturer in the city, recently came down with a fever but refused to get tested for COVID-19. Instead, he took paracetamol and rested for four days. Once his fever subsided, he resumed work. “In this wave, COVID-19 has become more like the flu. So even if I had contracted the virus, I’m fine now. The government has also prescribed only seven days of home isolation,” he said, defending his decision not to get tested.He isn’t the only one choosing this route. A growing number of people coming down with fever and other symptoms similar to COVID-19 are opting out of getting tested.Rashmi K., a software engineer and a resident of north Bengaluru, recently tested positive for COVID-19. Soon, her family members, including her three-year-old son and mother-in-law developed a sore throat, cold, cough, and fever. But none of them got tested. “We assumed it was COVID-19 and our family doctor put us on medication. We were in home isolation and came out of it after seven days,” she said.This trend is distorting the actual rate of infection, say civic officials who are also grappling with unreported positives among those using self-test kits at home. The mechanism put in place to track buyers does not appear to be in place. “The sales of home test kits have skyrocketed in the last one month. We are selling hundreds of kits every day. The Government has asked us to take down the Aadhaar and phone numbers of buyers, but to date, nobody has asked us for this data,” said a senior manager of a leading pharmacy store chain in the city.As per the Government data, the daily caseload of COVID-19 in the city appears to be declining gradually. But it may not be a reflection of the real picture on the ground, civic administration now fears. “We have observed that many of those who have symptoms are also not getting themselves tested. We would advise all symptomatic persons and primary contacts of positive patients to get themselves tested. The guidelines are very clear,” said Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta, who had tested positive for the virus and went into home isolation on January 26.A senior public health official said that while COVID-19 is easily manageable at home during the ongoing wave, it is still advisable for people to follow guidelines and not self-medicate. “The severity of the disease is less with the Omicron strain and complications are very low. However, it is not that nobody is developing complications or even dying. Especially senior citizens and those with comorbidities need to be monitored as per the guidelines,” said the public health official.He added that the problem with people isolating themselves till they feel better or their fever and other symptoms subside is that it puts others at risk. “They may potentially be carriers and infect people they come in contact with,” the official added.