As India surpassed 1 lakh daily COVID cases, pharmacies, vaccination centres, ambulances, COVID test centres, and oxygen cylinders became the five most-searched services in the health category on local search engine Just Dial.
Searches for COVID related services and products witnessed a spike of 19 per cent during the quarter ending December 2021.
About 85 per cent of online searches were for local pharmacies, and search for vaccination centres soared by 16 times, according to Just Dial Consumer Insights.
In India, the yearly growth rate for pharmacy searches stood at 15 per cent. In the Tier-II markets, the annual growth rate for pharmacies grew by 37 per cent, remaining stable in Tier-I markets.
Among Tier-I cities, Delhi, and Mumbai, the two worst Covid affected metros contributed to 56 per cent of the online searches for pharmacies, says the Just Dial report. This was followed by Bangalore (46 per cent), Pune (42 per cent), and Hyderabad (27 per cent), which saw the maximum demand growth rate for pharmacies.
Among Tier-II towns and cities, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Nashik, and Patna were the top-5 cities generating maximum pharmacy demand. "We have been successful in aggregating neighborhood pharmacies online and a host of other services such as test centres, vaccination centres, oxygen services and ambulances services. While Tier-I cities have traditionally remained ahead in adoption of these services online, Tier-II towns are also catching up," said Prasun Kumar, CMO, Just Dial.
Further, the report highlights that Mumbai and Delhi have the maximum demand for vaccination centres. Searches originating from the two cities comprise around 53 per cent of the demand from Tier-I cities. Jaipur, Patna, Chandigarh, Vadodara, and Nagpur were the top 5 Tier-II cities that saw maximum searches for vaccination centres.
For ambulance services, Delhi and Mumbai contributed almost 45 per cent to the total searches. Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna, Coimbatore, and Nagpur were the top 5 Tier-II cities with the highest number of searches showcasing a demand for ambulances.
COVID test centres demand grew by 47 per cent pan-India. The demand growth rate for COVID test centres in Tier-II cities was almost 2.5 times of Tier-I.
Among Tier-I cities, Chennai, Pune, and Mumbai were the top 3 generating maximum searches, while Coimbatore, Mysore, Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, and Nagpur were the top-5 cities in Tier-II for COVID test centres.
Further, the highest demand for oxygen cylinders came from Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. Among Tier-II cities. Lucknow, Coimbatore, Patna, Jaipur, and Chandigarh were the top five cities that saw maximum searches for oxygen cylinders.