BBMP plagued by misinformation on civic-run COVID-19 care and triage centres

‘It is unfortunate that people are spreading unverified information, which will affect COVID-19 positive patients who are on the lookout for beds or admission in the CCC,’ says a doctor.

While the private hospital bed management system is plagued by lack of transparency and the one managed by the civic body over-run with requests and long wait time, the triage and COVID-19 Care Centres (CCCs) are facing an altogether different problem: misinformation and unverified updates by private citizens and NGOs on available beds. For instance, though the CCC at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium has not yet been thrown open to the public, people started knocking on its doors after they received forwards claiming that the facility had oxygenated beds. A doctor helping the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) with oxygen concentrators for the CCC at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium highlighted the problem in a video. He pointed out that certain people were spreading false information about the availability of oxygenated beds in the 250-bed facility. “When the pandemic is raging in the country, it is unfortunate that people are spreading unverified information, which will affect COVID-19 positive patients who are on the lookout for beds or admission in the CCC,” he said in the video.