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The release of the Telepsychiatry Operational Guidelines 2020 in India, during the COVID-19 pandemic, is a relief for both clinicians and patients. These guidelines embark on initiating and executing naive and recently started telepsychiatry services in India. The document is aligned with other ethical regulations, policies, laws and the 2020 Telemedicine Practice Guidelines in India. This paper discusses a few points about the broader applicability of the guideline for the benefit of humankind in the prevailing healthcare crisis. The guidelines may be extrapolated in policy-making for telepsychiatry services in other low- and middle-income countries sharing a similar socioeconomic, cultural and political milieu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

T he COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented impact across the globe. It seems that the COVID-19 pandemic may be a blessing in disguise to enhance the horizons of OST in India. On the one hand, this pandemic has created multiple challenges to PWUO13; on the other hand, glancing over the grim reality of PWUO in India, it has also introduced promising opportunities and propitious evolutions that should be further strengthened during the post-COVID-19 era. [Extracted from the article]

Sir, The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is not just an unprecedented healthcare crisis; it is also rapidly becoming a social, economic, humanitarian, and human rights crisis. Healthcare for dying patients has been distorted in several ways; these include extreme restrictions in visitation policies and practices that deny dying patients a final opportunity to physically meet their loved ones and bid goodbye. [Extracted from the article]