This story is from June 27, 2020

Suicide no solution; virus can be beaten: Top cop

Suicide no solution; virus can be beaten: Top cop
Bengaluru: Bhaskar Rao, the city’s top cop, on Friday appealed to Covid-19 patients not to give up hope and resort to suicide, insisting the virus can be beaten and there was no need to despair. Rao, Bengaluru city police commissioner, said his force has launched a WhatsApp group to boost morale of the force, especially those who tested positive.
His appeal comes in the wake of a 60-year-old Kunigal-based patient hanging herself in the bathroom of a hospital.
Rao’s own force has been hit hard by the virus, with a head constable hanging himself in a bus, while several others have either tested positive or have had to go into quarantine.
“She was asymptomatic and almost cured,” Rao said, referring to the woman who took her life on Friday. “Doctors treating her said she would have been discharged in a few days. I appeal to people not to take this extreme step. If you go through medical records, you will realize more and more patients are recovering and being discharged. Very few have died due to Covid-19 in Karnataka. We are well equipped and have a good doctors. Please be brave. We are all with you.”
Meanwhile, 12 police personnel tested positive on Friday. One of them had visited the commissioner’s office on Thursday evening, sources said.
“The commissioner’s office will be sanitised. If needed, it will be sealed for 72 hours from Friday evening,” a senior police officer said.
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Extreme step
*June 22: A 50-year-old Karnataka State Reserve Police head constable committed suicide by hanging himself inside a police bus parked outside a hospital. The head constable had tested positive and was taken to the hospital to be admitted.
*May 21: A 55-year-old hotelier, who had come from Maharashtra and was quarantined at a school in Moodbidri, Chikkamagaluru district, hanged himself. Posthumous reports confirmed he was infected.
*April 26: A 50-year-old, who tested positive, jumped to his death from the seventh floor of Victoria Hospital.
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