<span style="color: #222222;">Government has said that the period of lockdown helped the nation create the required additional health infrastructure in the country.<br />'' <br />'' In its written reply to a question asked in Lok Sabha today, Home Ministry said that as per an estimation the decision of lockdown prevented 14 to 29 lakh COVID cases and 37 to 78 thousand deaths in the country by slowing down the spread of the pandemic.<br />''<br />''It said, during the lockdown period, dedicated isolation beds recorded an increase of 22 times and dedicated ICU beds above 14 times to what existed in March 2020.</span>