NEW DELHI: Lockdown may be considered the most preferred option to check the spread of Covid-19 at this juncture, but scientists at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and other key health institutions had in February questioned this approach of China saying the “long-lasting negative impact of such a measure should not be underplayed”.Calling lockdown a “drastic public health measure”, the scientists in their research paper — The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic: A review of the current evidence — had then suggested community and civil-society led approach to deal with the pandemic. “Instead of coercive topdown quarantine approaches, which are driven by the authorities, community and civil-society-led self-quarantine and self-monitoring could emerge as more sustainable and implementable strategies in a protracted pandemic like Covid-19,” said the paper.Scientists who worked on this review include Pranab Chatterjee, Nazia Nagi, Anup Agarwal, Bhabatosh Das, Sayantan Banerjee Nivedita Gupta and Raman R Gangakhedkar. “It has demonstrated the weak preparedness against emerging and reemerging dangerous pathogens across the world,” it said.