The Union health ministry on Sunday issued guidelines for managing mental illness during the pandemic in an attempt to protect vulnerable patients and frontline healthcare workers.
The government suggested establishing a hotline between a mental health institution and a nearby covid-designated hospital to facilitate easy transfer of patients across facilities.
The guidelines also stressed the importance of training all healthcare workers in waste disposal, sanitization of establishments, maintaining social and physical distancing, and putting on and taking off personal protective equipment.
Rules have been drawn up to address the needs of covid-19 patients who are suffering from trauma or stress, pandemic-induced depression and those who are already suffering from severe mental health conditions.
The government said the guidelines are based on the recommendations and protocols of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the available information on covid-19.
It will be updated and revised from time to time. The guidelines have been prepared by experts from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, the number of covid cases in India crossed 8.2 million on Sunday, and the deaths reported so far are 122,379. The active caseload is 572,455. Karnataka has reported a steep decline in the number of active cases in the past 24 hours. India’s average cases per million now stand at 5,930.
Seventeen states or Union territories (UTs) have cases per million lower than the national average. At least 46,963 new confirmed cases were recorded in the last 24 hours. Around 77% of these are from 10 states and UTs, the government said. Kerala is still reporting a very high number of new cases with more than 7,000, followed by Maharashtra and Delhi with more than 5,000 cases each, the health ministry said. At least 470 deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours.
“India’s deaths per million population is one of the lowest in the world and stand at 88,” the health ministry said, adding that 21 States/UTs have deaths per million lower than the national average.
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