By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, Jun 30 (IANS): The Rajasthan government has added a fresh column to its daily Covid report under the header 'Address not known', which features those patients whose details such as name, address and phone number are false.

As these patients have tested positive, their data feature in this particular column sans any specific location, as their whereabouts remain unknown.

Everyday, the health department issues a health bulletin specifically for Jaipur, as well as for the entire state.

In the Jaipur bulletin, the total number of patients in different colonies are mentioned. However, those whose real identity is not known are placed under the 'Address not known' column.

A senior official told IANS, "Be it for fear of the new Delta Plus variant or the threat of getting isolated by the community, many people going for tests are not sharing their real names, addresses or telephone numbers.

"We tried calling on the numbers submitted during testing to reach out to those who test positive, but their addresses could not be known. However, all such patients are sooner or later traced with the combined efforts of the medical teams."

The new column was added on June 28 after the first case of the Delta Plus variant was traced in Bikaner on June 26.

"It could that due to the fear of this new variant, many people have stopped giving their real addresses, phone numbers or names to the health teams," said a health official.

One patient each was added to this new column on June 28 and June 29. On Wednesday, 2 more names were added under the newly-created category.