3.1 | MAIN RESULTS
Table 1 summarizes mean scores of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Pakistan during lockdown and post-lockdown-lifting periods. Columns 1-3 in Table 1 show mean scores during three different time periods (that is first four-weeks of lockdown and last four-weeks of lockdown, and four-weeks after lockdown lifting). Column 4 lists differences in mean values (of all variables) between first four-weeks under lockdown and four-weeks after lockdown lifting. The last column shows mean differences between last four-weeks under lockdown and four-weeks after lockdown lifting. It is noteworthy to note that the mean differences of all variables of study, i.e., total confirmed cases, daily new cases, total deaths, and daily new deaths exhibit significant rise after lockdown lifting when compared with the mean scores of first and last four-weeks after lockdown implementation. Table 1 indicates that the number of total confirmed cases of COVID-19 has increased sixteen times from lockdown average of 3240.39 (first four-weeks) to 52939.71 (after lockdown lifting). The average of daily new cases also increased from 249.50 to 2264.71, depicting an increase of nine times. Total deaths and daily new deaths also increase from 49.60 to 1117.71 (twenty-two times) and 5.00 to 44.42 (nine times), respectively. There are also significant differences in the means of all variables during lockdown (last four-weeks) and after lockdown lifting periods. All the variables are statistically significant at 0.01 level.
………[Insert Table 1 ]………
Since the epidemic has started in Pakistan, the government is utilizing its resources to increase COVID-19 testing capacity across the country. Thus, it is important to note that the gradual increase in testing capacity may have significant contributions in the identification of daily new cases which would be ultimately reflected in the total confirmed cases. Given this belief, we performed paired t tests after normalizing raw variables by COVID-19 checks performed across country. Table 2 presents results of paired t tests based on normalized data. Almost all the results are consistent with those based on raw variables (Table 1) with the exception of mean differences of daily new cases and daily new deaths (between the periods of first four-weeks of lockdown and four-weeks after lockdown lifting), they are not statistically significant.
………[Insert Table 2 ]………