HYDERABAD: The helpline set up by the government for those affected by floods, seasonal diseases, monkeypox, and vaccination has turned out to be a damp squib.There were no calls for help from flood victims in any district though the authorities hoped that they would be flooded with calls for help.
Most of the calls were from Hyderabad asking for the setting up of vaccination camps in their areas and the availability of a third precautionary dose, the officials on the helpline said. So far 250 people dialled the mobile and landline line numbers, active for the last five days.
Among them, 96 were received on Friday, 63 on Saturday, 28 on Sunday, 33 on Monday and 30 on Tuesday. A round-the-clock war room has been established at the State-level asking citizens to call helpline numbers 9030227324 and 040-2465119 in case of grievances. However, it seems that the citizens in the State are not too aware of the numbers.
The helpline received very few calls from other districts. Those who called only asked about the availability of the third precautionary dose and they were mostly the adult age group between 18 and 59 years.
“Only one person called to know about the symptoms of Monkeypox infection,” said the official. The call was received on Tuesday, a day after the State government advised self-isolation for travellers arriving from virus-affected countries. Apart from that, nobody else has asked anything regarding the disease, officials said.
Vax enquiries
250 people called the helpline in the last five days
Most of the calls were from Hyderabad asking for setting up of vaccination camps in their areas and the availability of booster dose