The latest Google Trends report provides comprehensive insights into what India has been searching online during the pandemic. In July, some of the most common searches were for COVID-19-related issues, including treatments, vaccines, insurance and more.
Overall, coronavirus was the 15th-most searched topic in India during July. With Amitabh Bachchan, his son Abhishek and daughter-in-law, Aishwarya, all contracting with the disease last month, the most common coronavirus-related search term during last month was ‘Amitabh Bachchan corona positive‘.
Alongside queries about the Bachchan family, another hot search topic was COVID insurance. As it turned out, queries about ‘Corona Rakshak Policy‘ and ‘Corona Kavach Policy‘ saw a massive jump during the month. While Corona Rakshak (corona guard) is a benefit-based plan, Corona Kavach (corona shield) is an indemnity plan. All the health insurance providers are offering these policies as per IRDAI guidelines.
The most-searched coronavirus-related topic over the past month was ‘vaccine’. With around a dozen vaccine candidates from companies like AstraZeneca (in association with Oxford University), Moderna and Pfizer already in phase-3 trials, experts believe we can get not one, but multiple safe and efficient COVID-19 vaccines by this time next year.
Meanwhile, search interest for COVID symptoms grew by 10% over the past month. July apparently recorded the second-highest monthly peak for people searching online about COVID-19 symptoms. Most symptoms-related searches emanated from Sikkim, followed by Daman & Diu and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Overall, the searches were along expected lines for the times we live in, but let’s just hope we can leave this deadly disease behind and get back to some semblance of normalcy in our lives sooner rather than later.
