India Fighting COVID-19: Experiences and Lessons Learned From the Successful Kerala and Bhilwara Models.

The COVID-19 pandemic marks its emergence in China in December 2019. India reported its first case on January 30th 2020 which happened to be epidemiologically linked to China. On March 24, India went into nationwide lockdown. The number of cases increased in the country and a few hotspots were identified. Cluster containment strategy seemed to be effective in containing the disease and breaking the chain of transmission. Two models (Kerala and Bhilwara) emerged as a lesson for other states. Kerala government implemented a "triple-lock containment strategy" and Bhilwara district administration followed "all down curfew" with massive sample testing. The experiences from these successful field models can be implemented in other districts and states to flatten the COVID-19 curve.

Psychological distress and well-being assessment among Indian people during COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: A rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic restricted millions of people in their homes and affected them with anxiety, stress, and psychological distress. This online study was conducted to assess the psychological distress among the Indian population. Method: This is a cross-sectional study, data collected via an online self-reported questionnaire using a snowball sampling technique. COVID-19 psychological stress was measured through the COVID-19 peritraumatic distress index (CPDI). This questionnaire was open-access and adapted from the Shanghai Mental Health Centre. Data were extracted to Microsoft Excel and analyzed in SPSS 23 version. Ordinal logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratio for predicting variables. Results: A total of 625 responses were received. The mean age of the respondents was 26.41 years (standard deviation [SD] = 9.35; range = 17-79 years) with 320 (51.2%) males and the majority (68.8%) of the respondents were students. Youth with age group between 21 and 25 years were observed to be having peritraumatic distress 2.42 times more than the other groups (P = 0.001). Females were found to be more nervous and anxious (χ2 = 5.12; P = 0.02), more sluggish reaction due to anxiety (χ2 = 9.46; P = 0.002) as compared to males. Unmarried respondents were observed to be more sluggish due to anxiety (χ2 = 7.2; P = 0.007), felt more tired and exhausted (χ2 = 6.12; P = 0.013) in comparison to married. Conclusion: COVID-19 pandemic crisis significantly affected a major segment of society. The psychological distress level was observed to be high among youth, females, and a group of people in quarantine or isolation.