SHILLONG: More than 600 people who visited Bethany Hospital here have registered themselves by calling helpline number 108 in the past 24 hours after a city-based doctor tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday. There were around 2000 calls made to the number.
Thousands of panicky people from different parts of the state had called the authorities soon after news of the doctor testing positive broke, forcing the government to come out with another number – 1070 — and even shared a link for the people to register themselves.
Many, however, also complained on Monday night that calls to 108 were not going through due to heavy traffic.
When contacted, an official from 108 Helpline on Tuesday said that they operate a primary interface line which can take 20 calls at one go whereas 500-600 calls were being made at a time.
However, a day after the detection of the positive case, the number of calls to 108 went down.
In the meantime, an audio clip has gone viral in the social media where one person, who called another helpline to say he had visited the Bethany Hospital, was asked to call later as there was a lot of work. However, the official advised the caller not to panic.
