Strengthening mental health response to COVID-19: An opportunity call

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)pandemic caused by severe acute respiratorysyndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) hascreated havoc in societies worldwide. Theunprecedented effects of this pandemic haveheld the world by storm due to its highlycontagious and virulent nature. No countryor human inhabited island has been left fromdevastation by the disease. The consequencesare numerous, affecting physical, mental,economic, and social domains of livesadversely. Recent systematic reviews indicatethat, across the globe, mental healthproblems are common and are on the riseamong infected, affected populations as wellas healthcare professionals (Tsamakis et al.,2020; Vindegaard and Benros, 2020; Xiong etal., 2020).