68% believe weekend lockdowns meaningless or have no major impact: Survey

Two-thirds of those who were part of a survey believe that the weekend lockdowns imposed in several cities and states are either "meaningless" or have "minor" impact in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic.

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At the same time, 69% citizens of those surveyed by LocalCircles felt that a stringent lockdown in 49 districts which have India’s 80% caseload is needed to contain the spread of the pandemic.

To a question on whether they found the weekend lockdown useful, 28% of the around 16,000 surveyed answered in the affirmative while 44% were of the view that it was "meaningless" while 24% said that the impact would be "minor".

"This means 68% of citizens believe weekend lockdowns have negligible or minor impact on containing the spread of Covid-19," the survey said.

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"Over two-thirds of the citizens in the survey believe that these weekend lockdowns have no or little effectivity and instead a targeted 3-4 week lockdown in all districts that make up 80% of India’s caseload is the best way forward," it said.

The Uttar Pradesh government recently announced a 'weekend' lockdown. Odisha has a weekend shutdown in 10 districts with high caseload while Punjab too ordered a stricter lockdown on weekends and public holidays. In Madhya Pradesh, a state-wide Sunday lockdown is being implemented while cities like Bhopal and Indore were already having weekend lockdowns.

Asked about the strategy for 49 districts with high case load, 46% supported a complete lockdown for three weeks or more while 23% said a lockdown should be implemented like it was done between March 25 and May 3.

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Only 9% said week-end lockdowns should be implemented for the next three months in these districts while 13% were of the view that no action is needed and the government should just continue with Unlock 2.0. Eight per cent of the respondents said a full normal functioning should be resumed and we should learn to live with the virus.

In the remaining 687 districts, the survey said people are of the view that restrictions are not needed and the local economies should be able to function. As far as the goods movement within, from and to the 49 districts, that should continue.

"While many businesses are opposed to the idea of lockdown, citizens are clear that it is critical to breaking the chain of Covid-19 spread. Some other businesses also stated that instead of 20-30% business volumes because of much lower foot falls in the market, it is better to shut things for a 3-4 week period and restart activity at a higher scale when people are not as fearful to step out," the survey claimed