Fighting COVID-19: As India Gears Up For Lockdown 2.0, Here Is How The Lockdown Has Worked So Far In Various States

States That Performed Outstandingly To Flatten The Curve

The state of Kerala, which reported India's first COVID-19 case has been most successful in fighting the disease. The state prepared itself even before the first patient arrived in the country and started fighting the virus on a mission mode even before the lockdown was enforced. The infection used to be doubling every three days in Kerala, which came down to doubling every 20 days. The state currently has 376 cases.

After a massive initial increase, Telangana, which has 504 positive cases, as on April 13, saw a dramatic drop in the growth rate of coronavirus cases post lockdown. Before lockdown, the infection was doubling every two days but after the lockdown was enforced, it has come down to doubling every 14 days, exhibiting positive impact of the lockdown.

The state of Andhra Pradesh is also among the states that have seen the success of the lockdown. While before lockdown, the infection was doubling every day, by the end of the third week, growth of infection has come down to doubling every 15 days. The state has 427 COVID-19 cases, as on April 13.

The state of Uttar Pradesh that has 483 cases, as on April 13, has also witnessed a sharp drop in the growth of COVID-19 infection post lockdown. Just like Telangana, the state went from infection doubling every three days down to doubling every 16 days.

States Where Lockdown Has Worked To Some Extent But Infection Is Still On A Rise

Coronavirus lockdown in Madhya Pradesh has been largely successful. Doubling every one and a half days at the start of the lockdown to doubling every 20 days by the middle of the third week, the state has seen a drastic change in the transmission rate. However, there has been an uptick in the last two days of the third week. A reason for this surge could be that people have started mingling a little earlier before the lockdown came to an end, the reasons are not yet clear. The state has 532 cases of coronavirus as on April 13.

Bihar has also seen a similar trend as Madhya Pradesh. By the end of the second week, the state was able to lower the rate of infection to doubling of cases every 18 days from every two days before the lockdown was imposed. However, towards the end of the third week, the state has started experiencing an upward trend and the cases are now doubling every three and a half days.

States Where The Impact Of Lockdown Is Yet To be Seen

According to the data, Gujarat has seen a negligible impact of lockdown. Initially, the infection was reported to double every five days but by the end of the third week of lockdown, the state is reporting the doubling of infection every two days. Gujarat currently has 516 cases and nothing seems to be working as of now to reduce the transmission rate in the state.

Other States

The first week of lockdown was worrying for West Bengal as the number of cases was doubling every two days but from the second week, the growth transmission saw a downward trend and now the number of cases is doubling every nine days.

Odisha saw a frightening spurt in the number of cases in the second week with the number of cases doubling every 15 hours. However, by the end of the third week, the state has been able to control the situation and now the cases of infection are doubling every 15 days.

Way Ahead

During his meeting with 13 Chief Ministers on Saturday, PM Modi had agreed that a longer lockdown was necessary to further stem the infection caused by coronavirus. Thus the government is likely to soon announce an extension of the current lockdown. Already states like Telangana, Maharashtra, Punjab and Odisha have extended the lockdown till April 30. The new virus has infected more than 9,000 people in the country till now. Since the restrictions have put lakhs of poor people out of work, the government may experiment easing up the lockdown norms in a staggered manner to reduce the impact of the lockdown on livelihoods.