Effectiveness of lockdown to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 pandemic during its first wave in India

Abstract

Background: Countries across the globe had adopted various prevention and control measures ranging from social distancing and isolation, to shutting down of nonessential services and countrywide lockdowns. The objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of the nation-wide lockdown to prevent or delay the spread of COVID-19 in India. Methods: This was a cross sectional and descriptive study. We used the secondary data from WHO website, from 01 January to 30 October 2020. We calculated mean, median number of new cases, deaths reported per day and case fatality rate, using Microsoft excel spreadsheet. Results: There was a steady rise in number of cases and deaths in India, during the lockdown and unlock period from phase-1 to phase-4. Approximately 10-fold increase in death was reported in the duration of 68 days of lockdown from phase-1 to Phase 4. The number of cases reported in unlock phase-4 were approximately 6 times more compared to unlock phase 1. The case fatality rate per day had declined during the lockdown period, from 3 .4% to 2 .5% deaths per day. The case fatality rate was lowest during the peak of pandemic, 1.27% in September 2020. Indicating good care of hospitalized patients compared to initial stage of pandemic in India. Conclusions: Indian government had imposed complete sudden lockdown at the right time. The peak of pandemic was delayed or slowed down. Indicating the timing of lockdown is an essential step to save the lives in pandemic, in resource limited settings.