68% residents of Delhi now in favour of extending lockdown/curfew by atleast 1 week as the city faces its biggest ever health emergency

April 24, 2021, New Delhi: The national capital of India is in a ‘health emergency’ as COVID-19 cases in the city have risen exponentially. Delhi is currently recording more than 26,000 daily cases and 80% of hospitals in the city have only a few hours of oxygen supply remaining. In fact, 25 COVID positive patients died in Sir Ganga Ram hospital overnight due to shortage of oxygen, while the lives of many others are at stake. Shortages of ventillator beds, ICU beds, oxygen beds and normal beds and COVID management drugs like Remdesivir and Tocilizumab have severely hit the city with relatives of COVID patients running from pillar to post to find them. Announcements of deaths have rise and on April 23 over 300 COVID deaths were recorded. With more than 90,000 active cases, the COVID positivity rate in Delhi is currently has increased from 10% in beginning of April to 36% currently, which is the highest ever in the state. Things have deteriorated so much that some residents of Delhi struggling to find oxygen and ICU beds in Delhi are going 2-4 hours away to Hapur, Karnal and Ambala just to find one.

In the wake of an unprecedented rise in the COVID-19 cases amid variants of SARS-COV-2 propagating in the city, LocalCircles survey released on April 15 had indicated that 59% of residents of Delhi were in favour of imposing the lockdown in the city. Following this, the Chief Minister of Delhi had announced a weekend curfew and then on April 19, a 6 day complete lockdown. The LocalCircles platform is seeing hundreds of posts and comments from residents of Delhi seeking assistance, discussing COVID references and what should be done in the city post April 26 including whether the current lockdown should be extended to further mitigate and contain the COVID spread vis-à-vis rebuild the capacity during the period. To understand the collective pulse on what should be done to control the spread of COVID in Delhi, LocalCircles conducted a survey that received close to 8,000 responses from residents located in all 11 districts of Delhi.

68% residents of Delhi in favour of extending lockdown/curfew by atleast 1 week as the city faces its biggest health emergency crisis while 48% say it should be a 2 week lockdown extension

Taking cognizance of the drastic increase in the daily Covid caseload that has surpassed 26,000, the survey sought opinion of residents of Delhi on how they would like to see the lockdown in the city post April 26 or whether the lockdown should end. In response, 28% residents said “extend it by 3 weeks”, 20% said “extend it by 2 weeks”, and another 20% said “extend it by 1 week”. There were only 9% voting for “end the lockdown/curfew and remove all restrictions”, while 16% said “end the lockdown/curfew and just impose night curfew”, and 7% couldn’t say. The findings of the poll indicate that 68% of residents of Delhi are in favour of extending lockdown/curfew by atleast 1 week as the city faces its biggest health emergency crisis. This question in the poll received 7,823 responses.

68% residents of Delhi in favour of extending lockdown/curfew by atleast 1 week as the city faces its biggest health emergency crisis while 48% say it should be a 2 week lockdown extension

As Delhi faces its biggest ever health emergency, percentage of residents supporting lockdown increases by 4-fold in 1 month

LocalCircles survey released on April 15 had indicated that 59% of residents of Delhi were in favour of imposing the lockdown in the city while the same survey in late March had indicated only 16% residents were in support of a lockdown. However, with rising cases, shortages of oxygen, and people seeing their contacts in social networks struggling to find hospital and ICU beds, ventilators, oxygen, remdesivir drug, etc., many more are now understanding the criticality of the situation and as a result, 68% residents of Delhi who participated in the current survey have voted in favour of a for lockdown/curfew for atleast 1 week. This suggests that the percentage of residents of Delhi supporting lockdown has increased by 4-fold in 1 month.

As Delhi faces its biggest ever health emergency, percentage of residents supporting lockdown increases by 4-fold in 1 month

In summary, the majority of Delhi residents are in favour of extending the current lockdown which ends on April 26. This has the support of 68% of residents of Delhi who are in favour of extending lockdown/curfew by atleast 1 week. A one week curfew or lockdown is known to not have much impact on the chain of spread and may times due to testing delays, the numbers may continue rising despite the lockdown. The Government of Delhi must consider taking into account the above feedback and extend the lockdown and work in mission mode to ensure there are enough test kits, beds, oxygen, medicines, ventilators such that if daily case load rises to even 50,000, the city can handle the same.

LocalCircles will share the findings of this survey with the Office of Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, the Office of Chief Minister and the Office of Chief Secretary so as they discuss the Delhi situation and decide on the way forward, this collective public feedback is taken into account.

Survey Demographics

Close to 8000 responses were received from residents of Delhi located in all 11 districts of Delhi. 64% respondents were men while 36% respondents were women. The survey was conducted via LocalCircles platform and all participants were validated Delhi residents who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate in this survey.