![]() ![]() Man being a social animal, such restrictions on free movements can lead to anger, frustration, loneliness and depressive symptoms. However, the psychological impact of lockdown on the general public has not been studied yet. It is well known that quarantine/isolation for any cause and in the context of a pandemic (Severe Acute Respiratory distress Syndrome, 2003) has been associated with significant mental health problems ranging from anxiety, fear, depressive symptoms, sense of loneliness, sleep disturbances, anger, etc., in the immediate few days of isolation, and later with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression after discharge from the hospital. While lockdown can be a significant and effective strategy of social distancing to tackle the increasing spread of the highly infectious COVID-19 virus, at the same time, it can have some degree of psychological impact on the public. As social distancing is an important public health solution to tackle the spread of COVID-19, many affected countries such as China, Italy, the United States, France, and Malaysia have also enforced lockdowns of public spaces effectively. ![]() In recent times, lockdown had been very well documented during September 9/11 attacks in New York (3 day lockdown) and during riots in several countries. ![]() In this scenario, all educational institutions, shopping arcades, factories, offices, local markets, transport vehicles, airports, railways, metros, and buses are completely shut down except hospitals, police stations, emergency services like fire station, petrol pumps, etc., and groceries. It can be both a preventive and an emergency strategy in order to save the lives of the vulnerable or at-risk persons. Complete lockdown further means that persons should stay where they are currently and no entry/exit movements would be allowed further. “Lockdown” is an emergency protocol that prevents public from moving from one area to the other. To tackle the rapid rise of cases in India and to curb the community spread, national level “lockdown” was declared starting from midnight of Mainitially for 21 days, which was later extended up to May 3, 2020, with assurance that the basic needs of the general public will be taken care of. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic on Maand as on March 24, 2020, more than 3.5 lakhs cases have been confirmed and more than 14,000 deaths have been reported, affecting 190 countries worldwide (WHO website dated Maat 21:00 pm Indian standard time) and these figures have exponentially increased to about 27.19 lakhs cases with about 1.9 lakhs deaths in 1 month time (WHO website date Apat 05:30 pm Indian standard time). One of the extreme challenges for survival is facing a pandemic of an infectious disease of the COVID-19 type. ![]()
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