Impact of enforcing lockdown in spread of COVID-19 infection in central India: An observational study

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The lockdown was implemented nationally for six weeks, followed by another two weeks of graded lockdown in districts in India as a means to prevent spread of infection. During this period, there was restriction of movement of residents except for those engaged in providing essential services. Aim: To find out sociodemographic profile of patients along with the impact of lockdown and spread of COVID-19 infection post-lockdown. Materials and Methods: A prospective observational study conducted in Bairagarh, a suburban area of Bhopal. The study was conducted for three months. A contact tracing questionnaire was used for data collection. The data was collected by actual visiting the patient’s address. The data collected was compiled and analysed using Microsoft Excel-2020. The patients were instructed to inform the data collector of any postviral symptoms after 15 days of diagnosis to find out any postviral complaints. Percentages and proportions were derived using Epi info-7.0. Results: During the study period of three months, in total 90 patients were interviewed. Almost 85.5% cases were found post-lockdown. Most common age group to be involved was 30-45 years. Males were more commonly infected. Only 14.44% patients who worked during lockdown were infected. Almost 26.6% patients were involved in cloth merchandise business which was closed during lockdown and had a sudden upsurge in business during unlock. In total 47.7% patients were asymptomatic when tested. Relative Risk (RR) of acquiring infection post-lockdown was 1.13. Doubling rate of infection among study population during lockdown was found to be 14.05 days compared to 5.35 days post-lockdown. Almost 80% patients did not have any postviral symptoms. The most common symptom seen was nose block. Conclusion: The lockdown was found to be effective strategy in controlling spread of COVID-19 infection as post-lockdown there was sudden increase in number positive cases.