The lockdown may have saved 37,000-71,000 lives and helped contain coronavirus infections to around 100,000 compared to an estimated 1.4-2.9 million covid-19 cases, without a lockdown, the government claimed on Friday, citing various mathematical models commissioned by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI).
The assessment covered the period between 25 March and 15 May. “Even by a simple model, 1.4-2.9 million cases have been averted; deaths averted vary between 37,000 and 71,000.
The government has shared publicly available data with independent experts to model the impact of the lockdown. In a pandemic like covid-19 there are no parallels to compare," said Praveen Srivastava, secretary and chief statistician of