Social stigma is a 'big challenge' amid COVID-19 pandemic, says Health Secretary

Government officials in India have expressed concern over the ever-growing challenge of social stigma attached to the coronavirus disease.

New Delhi:With increasing number of instances being reported from across the country of stigmatisation of COVID-19 patients, Union Health Secretary, Preeti Sudan said that the stigma attached to the infection is the "biggest challenge" being faced by the country.

"One of the biggest challenges we are facing today is the stigma attached to COVID-19, especially with people who are enforcing restrictions on patients and family of infected patients," said Preeti Sudan, Union Health Secretary.

She, however, added that the government is taking active measures to ensure their safety.

Sudan was participating in an interactive session with civil society organisations and NGOs on stigmatisation of COVID-19.

The programme was organised by Niti Aayog where Amitabh Kant, CEO Niti Aayog, Vandana Gurnani, additional secretary, Health Ministry and Lav Aggarwal, joint secretary of Health Ministry were also present. In fact, a few days back the Health Ministry has also issued a guideline over social stigma related to COVID-19 where it has asked people to support the 'COVID warriors'.

Lav Aggrawal said that CSOs and NGOs are playing a vital role in spreading the message of social distancing and best practices to follow during the pandemic.

"I would also urge them to actively join the government's efforts in eliminating the stigma involved with coronavirus," said Aggarwal. He suggested that positive aspects that have emerged amid the pandemic should be highlighted.

"About 80 percent of those getting infected with the disease recover without the need for any special treatment. More than 20 percent people infected with COVID-19 in India have already recovered. There are 307 green zones where no case of the viral disease has been reported for the last 28 days or more," said Aggarwal.

Amitabh Kant said that pandemics like COVID-19 require tough and timely decisions from government.

"If we had not taken action on time, we would have had over 10 lakh plus cases today, almost 44 times higher than our current number of cases," said Kant.

Meanwhile, in another development more than 7.5 crore people across India have downloaded AarogyaSetuApp. This App provides people about information of COVID-19 cases.

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