People who have mental health issues are more likely to become ill from Covid, according to new research, which has led the US public health agency to alter its guidelines.

CDC has included mental health diseases like depression and schizophrenia to its list of health conditions that increase a person’s risk of Covid-19 infection.

It is recommended by the CDC that doctors and nurses urge their patients to follow appointments and maintain social distance from each other.

Two meta-analyses published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry were used to make the determination.

Over 91 million people participated in the first study, which looked at the results of 21 investigations. Those with pre-existing mental problems are more likely to be hospitalized or die as a result of using Covid, and should be classified as an at-risk population.

Covid-19 is more common in those who suffer from mental illness, according to a study published in the journal Mood Disorders.

Covid-related deaths were associated with mental health issues in a second research involving 16 studies from seven countries. These were the people who were most at risk.

An article in the journal Covid-19 argues, “Patients with mental health disorders should have been targeted as a high-risk population for severe forms of Covid-19.”

A UK Health Security Agency representative told Pulse that the agency will ‘continue to keep all evidence under review’ despite the lack of an equivalent classification or recommendation in the UK.

Covid survivors are more prone to have mental health issues, according to a study published in 2013.