Chandigarh, May 11 (IANS): During the lockdown, 86,371 new patients were registered for treatment at 198 Outpatient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT) clinics, including private clinics on Punjab.

Till may 6, 500,552 patients have been treated at OOAT clinics, de-addiction centres and private centres, according to Special Task Force (STF) chief-cum-ADGP Harpreet Singh Sidhu.

Terming the OOAT clinic programme a success, he said due to improved registration at OOAT clinics, duration of take-home medication had increased to 21 days, which was a major relief for patients as well the staff.

"The OOAT model provides for medication-counselling-peer support services in an outpatient clinic," said Sidhu.

The STF chief said the drug abuse prevention officers (DAPO) programme, launched by the state government, supervised community activities to prevent drug abuse in their neighbourhood and linked the drug users with the de-addiction treatment centres.

Around 5.43 lakh DAPOs had been registered, he said and added, of that 88,710 were officials and 4,54,332 citizens.

Sidhu said the STF had designed 'comprehensive action against drug abuse' (CADA) strategy, based on the enforcement-deaddiction-prevention (EDP) approach.

He said 14,90,516 people had been made aware of ill-effects of drug abuse. Besides, 205,619 drug abuse victims had been contacted. of this, 98,278 had been sent to de-addiction and OOAT centres, he added.