Surge in Covid-related online searches
Top 10 cities: Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, and Chandigarh; Delhi and Mumbai contribute to 51 per cent of the searches from Tier-I cities
Covid cases are increasing exponentially across the country amid fear of a fourth wave, and Mumbai and Delhi are experiencing an unexpected spike in searches related to Covid – for pharmacies, vaccination centres, ambulance services, and Covid test centres, according to the latest Just Dial Consumer Insights.
Searches for pharmacies (52 per cent) – which dominated all Covid-related searches – along with vaccination centres (30 per cent), ambulances (9.25 per cent), Covid tests (4.4 per cent), and oxygen cylinders (2.5 per cent) made up the top-5 most searched categories on Just Dial.
The top-10 cities across the country that generated maximum searches were Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, and Chandigarh.
Delhi topped the searches for pharmacies, followed by Mumbai and Bengaluru among Tier-I cities. Delhi and Mumbai contributed to 51 per cent of the searches that were being generated from Tier-I cities. Monthon-Month (April vs March) searches in Bengaluru saw a huge jump of 40 per cent, Pune 24 per cent, and Delhi 14 per cent.
Prasun Kumar, CMO, Just
Dial, said they have aggregated neighbourhood pharmacies on the platform with credible information so that they are just a call away for users.
He said, “Mumbaikars made a beeline for vaccination centres followed by Delhi and Hyderabad. Bengaluru saw the maximum rise (month-on-month) in demand for vaccination centres at 14 per cent and Pune at 11 per cent.” He added that the demand for ambulances remained at par in Delhi and Mumbai, followed by Pune while Chennai topped the list for Covid test centres ahead of Mumbai and Delhi.
“Vis-à-vis the third wave, searches for oxygen cylinders remained significantly low with Delhi and Mumbai generating maximum demand followed by Hyderabad,” said Kumar.
“Nagpur topped the demand for vaccination centres with Indore and Jaipur in second and the third place respectively,” states the study. “Demand for ambulances in Chandigarh shot up by 36 per cent in April vis-à-vis March and topped the demand across Tier-II cities ahead of Lucknow and Jaipur. Jaipur and Coimbatore saw maximum demand for Covid test centres followed by Chandigarh while maximum demand for oxygen cylinders was from Lucknow, Jaipur, and Gorakhpur.”