Lockdown 1.0 & 2.0 Helped Avert Around 1.4 To 2.9 Million Additional COVID-19 Cases And 37,000 To 78,000 Deaths: Govt

Revealing the Government data, NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul shared on Friday (22 May) that the imposition of the first and second rounds of nationwide lockdown helped avert between 1.4 to 2.9 million additional COVID-19 cases and 37,000 to 78,000 deaths, reports Hindustan Times.

Presenting the data derived out of various epidemic modelling exercises performed by experts to calculate the gains of various rounds of lockdown, the first of which began on 25 March, Dr Paul said, "Even though various agencies have conducted the analysis but the results more or less are indicative of the same conclusion that lockdown has managed to significantly slow down the virus transmission rate in the country"

Dr Paul also asserted, "We have about 95 per cent confidence level on the data generated out of all this analysis, which is proof enough to say that the country is on the right track. Having said that, this kind of analysis is always prone to improvisations, depending on the kind of data that's fed."

The ten states are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Karnataka.

Additionally, in the cities, about 70 per cent of the cases are confined to just 10 -- Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Ahmadabad, Thane, Pune, Indore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Aurangabad.

“Lockdown was a measure to ensure our health system wasn’t burdened and it has achieved its purpose. Now the onus lies on people to consolidate the gains made,” Dr AC Dhariwal, former director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) was quoted as saying in the report.