New Delhi, Oct 10 (UNI) After literally taking the world by storm, killing more than a million people and infecting around 37 million people worldwide, the lethal Novel Coronavirus added another feather to it's deadly cap, by becoming a major reason for the increasing number of suicides across the globe, especially in India, which witnessed rapid deterioration of psychological and mental health among the citizens in the past about six months.
According to National Mental Health Programme Advisor Naresh Purohit, Psychological and Mental Health aspects have been widely affected in all areas of society after the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic.
People are showing signs of fear, anxiety, uncertainty, feeling of insecurity, frustration and even in many cases serious illness such as depression. Consumerism, cut-throat competition, shallow human relations, negative impact of the social media and inability to cope with the unpleasant life events are the reasons behind the surge for the rising number of suicide cases amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The World Health Organisation said that around 10 crore Indians (7.5 per cent of the total population) suffer from mental health issues. Anxiety and Depression form the most common mental health issues.
'India also accounts for nearly 15 per cent of the global mental, neurological and substance abuse disorder burden in the world. Also there are few than 4000 medical professionals to cater to the needed assistance in case of mental illness,' Dr Purohit told UNl.
The country recorded a fresh spike of 73,272 Covid-19 cases during the past 24 hours, taking the tally to 69,79,424 on Saturday, the Union Health Ministry update said here. It registered 82,753 cured cases in the same duration, which pushed the total recoveries to 59,88,822.
Meanwhile, there were 926 deaths due to the highly contagious virus since yesterday, pushing the death toll to 1,07,416 till date.
Active case-load on the country has decreased by 10,407 since Friday and currently India is home to 8,83,185 active cases of the Novel Coronavirus.
In terms of percentage, the active cases are 12.65 per cent, recovered at 85.81 per cent, and the deaths 1.54 per cent.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), as many as 11,64,018 samples were tested in the past 24 hours, taking the total cumulative samples tested since the beginning of the pandemic till Friday to 8,57,98,698.
Maharashtra remained the worst-affected state in the country, with 15,06,018 cases, including 12,134 new additions, 2,36,947 active cases, 12,29,339 recoveries and 39,732 deaths so far.

Andhra Pradesh clocked in 7,44,864 cases, including 5,145 47,665 cases, 6,91,040 recoveries and 6,159 eaths due to the pandemic.

Karnataka registered 6,90,269 COVID patients, including 10,913 fresh cases, 1,18,870 cases, 5,61,610 recoveries and 9,789 deaths.
UNI Team RJ SHK2023