Emotions in the time of COVID-19: A sentiment analysis of tweets during the nationwide lockdown in India

Background COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in terms of burden, nature and quantum of control measures and public reactions. We report trends in public emotions and sentiments before and during the nation-wide lockdown implemented since 25th March 2020 in India. Methods We collected a sample of tweets containing the keywords ‘coronavirus’ or ‘COVID-19’ published between 12th March and 14th April in India. After pre-processing, the tweets were subjected to sentiment analysis using natural language processing algorithms. Results Our analysis of 226170 tweets revealed a positive public sentiment (mean sentiment score=0.25). Tweets expressing a given sentiment showed significant (p<0.001) waning of negativity; negative tweets decreased (39.3% to 35.9%) and positive tweets increased (49.8% to 51.8%). Trust (0.85 words/tweet/day) and fear (0.66 words/tweet/day) were the dominant positive and negative emotions, respectively. Conclusions Positive sentiments dominated during the COVID-19 lockdown in India. A surveillance system monitoring public sentiments on public health interventions for COVID-19 should be established. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study did not receive any funding ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors