The COVID-19 caller tune that plays by default to spread awareness will be stopped soon, said sources on Monday.
"No more caller tune on COVID-19. It is going to stop soon," an official told news agency ANI on condition of anonymity.
A day earlier, a source close to wire agency PTI said “official sources” are thinking of "dropping COVID-19 pre-call announcements from phones after almost two years of raising awareness about disease."
Since March 2020, when the coronavirus was declared as a pandemic, the government had directed all telecom operators to ensure its announcement, in the form of a caller tune, is played before phone users connect to each other on a call.
Initially featuring the voice of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, the caller tune was aimed at promoting measures like wearing face masks, using hand sanitisers and maintaining social distancing to reduce the rate of virus transmission.
Later in January 2021, it was replaced by a “female voice” alerting callers about the Covid-19 vaccination drive with the message: “The new year has brought a new ray of hope in the form of vaccines. Vaccines developed in India are safe, effective and will provide immunity.”
The caller tune also played a role in reminding people to not believe in rumours about the efficacy of vaccines with the message: “Dawaai bhi, kadaai bhi (medicine and caution both)".
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