NEW DELHI: AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria on Thursday made an appeal to the people to not stigmatize the patients who have recovered from COVID-19 as it is creating problems in the society.
"I would like to appeal to everyone that we should look at how we can support the families and patients who have had COVID-19 rather than stigmatize them and not accept them in the society," said Guleria.
"The majority of the patients are coming alright and coming out and these are actually are symbols of hope that they have had COVID-19 and have come out and yet we have stigmatized them to a large extent. It is creating a panic; it is creating problems as far as society is concerned," he added.
Addressing a press conference here, Guleria said that the stigmatization is making people not report to the healthcare authorities in case they have symptoms.
"Not only that, but it is also actually causing an increase in morbidity and mortality. Because of the stigma that is happening many patients who have COVID-19 or flu-like symptoms are not coming to health care facilities," Guleria further said.
He also said that the coronavirus infection is not that serious as the majority of the people are recovering from it.
"This is a disease which is not that serious, 90-95 percent people recover, if we have that stigma and we don't come forward then we may land up in a situation where because of our delayed treatment we may have higher mortality."
Meanwhile, India's count of COVID-19 has climbed to 21,393 after 1,409 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare today.