‘Scared’ citizens flood telemedicine helpline numbers with calls, seek advice on testing

TNN | Updated: May 4, 2020, 16:13 IST

Picture used for representational purpose only

RANCHI: Doctors at telemedicine helplines are increasingly receiving panic calls related to Covid-19. Some of the medicos that TOI spoke with said that nowadays people with even common cold symptoms are making frenetic calls to the helplines thinking they have Covid-19.
Dr M N Sinha, who is with Hello Doctor, said, “We are getting calls from Jharkhand as well as from other states like Meghalaya. People have become quite conscious about their health nowadays. Even if they have common cold, they are asking whether they should go for a coronavirus test.” Hello Doctor is run by an NGO called Citizens Foundation.
The secretary of Citizens Foundation, Ganesh Reddy, said that soon after the imposition of lockdown, they had launched the tele-medicine consultation helpline for the benefit of common people. He said, “On an average, we get at least 30-35 calls throughout the day seeking medical advice. Of them, many are certainly panic calls, but in such cases we try to counsel the caller and ask them to not panic.”
A doctor at Gurunanak Hospital, Dr Johnson Clement Bage, said, “I get around 15-20 calls per day. And on an average, at least 8-10 callers ask me if they need to go for a Covid test. But we ask them to take medicines first and wait for some more days.”
The sudden change in weather and rains have also led to a spurt in cases of fever and viral infections, thereby compounding the problems of tele-medicine consultants.
Ritik Kumar Yadav, a 23-year-old guy and a resident of Bhurkunda, said, “A few days ago, I panicked after getting a sore throat. I calmed down only after the government tele-medicine helpline told me that my sympoms were not that of Covid-19.”
Dr Prashant Jayasawal of City Trust Hospital said, “People, in general, have become more aware of the pandemic but it is regrettable that some are still not using masks while going out.”