ABSTRACT
Background COVID-19 started in 2019 and spread rapidly throughout the world. The pandemic has presented a lot of public health challenges globally. The virus mostly affected the respiratory system, so tobacco consumers (smoke/smokeless) were at a higher risk of developing severe illnesses due to COVID-19. National Tobacco Quit Line Services (NTQLS) plays an important role in tobacco cessation. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was challenging to run these services. Methods There were several challenges faced by the NTQLS during the lockdown. The data from the NTQLS team was retrieved to analyze if the work from home and the pandemic had affected the number of attended calls and quitters during the pandemic (2020) and compared it with before the pandemic (2019). Results The results showed that before the pandemic, the attended calls were 36.4% whereas, during the pandemic, they were 27%. Quit-date set decreased during the pandemic (29.2%) compared to before the pandemic (41.8%). Furthermore, the number of quitters decreased during the pandemic (27.5%) compared to before the pandemic (35.9%). Conclusion Telephone counseling is effective in various countries to increase the quit attempts among the individuals during the pandemic, however, these services were jeopardized due to COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)