Citation

Kapilan N. Asian J. Psychiatry 2020; 54: e102434.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102434

PMID

33271714

Abstract

The government of India announced lockdown on 24th March 2020 to restrict the spread of the COVID-19 and extended lockdown twice and finally lifted it on 17th May 2020. This helped to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases (Mishra et al., 2020). However, few states such as Maharashtra and Tamilnadu have extended the lockdown in cities such as Mumbai and Chennai as the number of COVID-19 cases spiked in these cities. The number of COVID-19 case in India is 719,664 as on 8th July 2020 (Government, 2020) and India has reached 3rd position in highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world. The increase in COVID-19 cases and lockdown affected the economy and resulted in higher unemployment. The increase in COVID-19 cases, food inflation, restriction in travel etc. has created panic among the people. The social distancing, travel restrictions and self-isolation affected all the sectors. The factories, colleges and schools were closed due to lockdown and manufacturing activities came to standstill. Hence, the socio-economic conditions of the people were affected. The panic buying food products have created demand for food products and food inflation increased significantly. The global outbreak of COVID-19 affected the world economy and socio-economic condition of people (Nicola et al., 2020). The recession increases death rates due to deterioration in mental health, poverty, suicides etc. The recession may force the government in austerity drive to reduce debt, reduction in income which is received in the form of taxes etc....

Language: en