The peak Covid months of April and May saw a steep increase in the tweets seeking medical help and raising funds for relief efforts.

Tweets on Covid increased manifold during April 1 to May 31 as against the previous two months of February 1 to Mar 31, according to data released by Twitter India.

It said that tweets around seeking or providing medical help increased by 1,958 per cent during the period. #Covid19 was tweeted 77 per cent more, and #Blood was tweeted 72 per cent more as compared to the February-March period. Tweets with #Plasma saw an increase of 834 per cent, and #SOS 152 per cent during the period.

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The exchange of tweets between people seeking help and those volunteering to connect them with resources boosted the volume of replies.

Tweets on #IndiaFightsCorona saw a 530 per cent increase during the April-May period. Among local and state-related Twitter conversations, #DelhiFightsCorona and #MaharashtraFightsCorona saw a growth of 1872 per cent and 2377 per cent, respectively.

Relief efforts

As people came forward to contribute to relief efforts, conversations around fundraising went up by 731 per cent on Twitter. Australian cricketer Pat Cummins’ (@patcummins30) tweet announcing monetary support to India was the most-liked and retweeted tweet during this period.

 

Mental wellbeing remained top of mind for people and recorded a 153 per cent increase during the period. People tweeted with hashtags such as #DoctorsMentalhealth, #CovidCounselling, #CovidDepression, #CovidInsomnia, among many others. Emoji with the ‘folded hands’ was the most-tweeted emoji during the period.

Vaccine

As the distribution of Covid vaccines expanded and vaccination drives gained momentum, people followed and participated in Twitter conversations on vaccine awareness, availability, and much more. Twitter India said that tweets around #Vaccine and #Vaccination went up by 246 per cent.

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Awareness

With many expert organisations, government accounts, health professionals, and epidemiologists on Twitter, people leveraged it to find accurate information on the latest developments, best Covid practices, vaccination drives, and other relevant information. People tweeted with hashtags such as #CoronavirusUpdates, #CoronaIndiaUpdate, #Covid19IndiaResources, among others increasing the conversations by 916 per cent, Twitter India said.

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