Woman not tested for Covid in Bengaluru's KSR railway station told to isolate self

BENGALURU: In an incident that raises a question mark on the veracity of the tests being done by 
the BBMP, an engineer who visited the KSR railway station on Friday received a message from the BBMP asking his mother to isolate until the test report of her sample was made available.

The shocker is that the woman had not given her sample for testing.

Abhishek C Rao, a field engineer at a multinational firm told TNIE, "I was at the railway station on Friday afternoon to drop my mother who was to travel by the Double Decker train to Chennai at 2.30 pm. We were accosted by a medical staffer in a PPE suit who was part of a group carrying out tests on visitors to the station. I explained to them that my mother was in a hurry to board the train."

They insisted that his mother's phone number be handed over.

"I gave them my number. After dropping my mother, I was on my way home when I received a message that was meant for my mother that said she should quarantine herself. I was furious as no sample had been taken," he said.

Rao drove back to the station and demanded to meet the staffer who took his number but was told she was on a break. 

The message read thus: "RT-PCR sample collected for Sukantha on Dec 4, 2020 2.02 pm. You are advised to isolate yourself till the sample is tested and the test report is available. Your sample has been sent to Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bangalore." 

A railway official said they keep getting complaints of  passengers being forced to undergo tests at the KSR Railway Station by the BBMP staff there.