HUBBALLI: As the severity is less among the Covid-19 infected patients in this third wave, fear over the disease has come down among the people. As a result, anxiety, depression and other psychological issues, which were a major problem in the second wave, have come down in this third wave.
In the first and second wave of Covid-19, the government enforced lockdown to break the chain of virus spread. Many people were in fear to step out of their house fearing over the virus spread and even many firms started work from home culture. Fear over Covid-19 infection, lockdown, restrictions, work from home and a few more factors have resulted in anxiety, depression and other psychological issues among the people.
The same was expected in this third wave too, but the government has not enforced any strict guidelines to curb the virus. Even the severity of the disease is very less compared to the previous wave. Only 5 percent of infected patients have been hospitalized and the remaining 95 percent of patients are getting treatment in home isolation.
To address psychological issues of the people, Dharwad Institute of Mental Health And Neuroscience (DIMHANS) hospital started tele-counselling over the phone calls and increased its helpline to an eight-line number. It had even started video counselling too. As the second wave ended, eight-line helpline was reduced to a two-line counselling line.
Dr Mahesh Desai, director of the institute said in the second wave, people feared breathing issues, availability of beds and ventilators in hospitals. But now, no such symptoms are seen among the infected and the severity is very less this time. Even most of the public have been vaccinated with both doses. Therefore people are not worried about the disease and fear among the people over the disease has come down.
“We get regular calls related to general psychological issues, but we are hardly getting single-digit calls over the Covid-19 related psychological issues. Therefore there is no plan to increase lines for counselling, if required, we will take a call on it,” he added.