More Indians Felt Anxious During Unlock 1.0 Than Lockdown 1.0: Survey

Indians are getting more anxious and worried as the number of coronavirus cases are on the rise, a new LocalCircles survey revealed.

21 percent of people felt anxious during lockdown 1.0, while 56 percent now feel anxious with the government's announcement of 'Unlock 1.0' - a 166 percent rise from how they felt during lockdown 1.0 in early April.

The survey covered nearly 17,000 people in 211 districts of the country.

"With the government now announcing unlocking of the country in three planned phases, citizens are getting anxious due to the growing numbers of COVID-19 cases," Deccan Herald quoted the survey as stating.

The survey said that it is important for the government to now evaluate if Unlock 1.0 helps every district, and whether the high virus-load cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, etc. need different treatment.

"Also, a serious plan needs to be drawn upon how the healthcare system should be scaled effectively if the daily case load rises from 11,000 to 20,000 within a few weeks. A clear message also needs to be put out stating 'the lockdown has ended, the pandemic hasn't and its getting worse" for there is a sizable group who feels COVID-19 has ended with the lockdown ending," it said.

The survey further said that only six percent believe that there should never have been any lockdown and people should have learnt to live with the virus, whereas 12 percent say that unlocking makes sense and the peak is almost here and cases will now reduce.

"This means that 79 per cent of citizens feel that unlock 1.0 will lead to a significant hike in COVID-19 cases in India," it said.

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