As India witnessed a rise in the daily addition of coronavirus cases, which has crossed 27,000 mark, many States, including Uttar-Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, emphasised on weekend lockdowns in a bid to contain the virus.

LocalCircles, India’s community social media platform, conducted a survey to get the citizens’ perspective on what they feel about such weekend lockdowns and if there could be a better way to implement new lockdowns.

Over 16,000 people from 201 districts took part in the survey. The survey revealed that 28 per cent believe that such lockdowns are useful. 24 per cent find it important but with a minor change in the face of the virus. While 44 per cent find weekend lockdowns useless. 4 per cent did not have an opinion on the same.

This means that 68 per cent of citizens believe weekend lockdowns have negligible or minor impact on containing the spread of Covid-19.

In the earlier LocalCircles polls, 66 -74 per cent citizens in the last 3 weeks have been consistently saying that there should be a complete lockdown in the 15 high viral load districts in India.

As per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) report last week, 49 districts now contribute to 80 per cent of India's Covid-19 spread. Citizens were asked how these 49 districts should be managed to contain Covid-19.

In response, 46 per cent said a complete lockdown should be implemented for 3 weeks or more (home delivery of essentials and all activities closed). While 23 per cent said a lockdown should be implemented like it was done between March 25-May 3. Only 9 per cent said weekend lockdowns should be implemented for the next 3 months. 13 per cent said no action was needed and the Centre should continue with Unlock 2.0. About 8 per cent said a full normal functioning should be resumed and we should learn to live with the virus.

This means that 69 per cent citizens feel a stringent lockdown in 49 districts, which have India’s 80 per cent caseload, is needed to contain the spread of Covid-19. Chennai had implemented a complete lockdown from June 19– July 5.