Coronavirus drops to number 15 on Google’s Search trends

NEW DELHI: It seems Indians’ interest in the covid-19 pandemic is dropping. According to Google Search trends, coronavirus was the 15th most searched term in India in July. It was the third-most searched term in the country in June. The Search giant had earlier said searches for coronavirus-centric themes declined 66% in May, even as interest remained higher than what was in February.

That said, the virus is still on the top of many of our minds. According to Google’s findings, search term "Amitabh Bachchan corona positive" saw a spike of 5000% this month, as did searches for "corona kavach policy." People also searched for "corona rakshak policy", which saw a spike of 3300%, ahead of the 2550% spike in searches for "Aishwarya Rai coronavirus".

On the other hand, search interest on symptoms to do with the disease grew 10% in July, which is the second highest it has been, behind March. Sikkim leads the charge in terms of searches for symptoms, followed by Daman & Diu and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The top three states searching for coronavirus are Jharkhand, Goa, Chandigarh, respectively. Delhi came in at number eight.

The Indian government, on July 29, announced the third stage of unwinding the lockdowns it had enforced in order to reign in the pandemic. Under Unlock 3.0, the government has allowed gyms and yoga studios to reopen, though some states have chosen to keep them closed.

In the meanwhile, the number of positive cases in the country have surpassed two million, with over 1 million recoveries too. The death count in the country is over 40,000, with Maharashtra accounting for the largest number of lives lost to the disease.