San Francisco, May 23 (IANS): A series of circles, each measuring 10 feet in size, have been drawn across parks in San Francisco in an effort to allow residents enjoy the outdoors while keeping their distance from each other.

In Dolores Park, one of the most iconic parks of the city, there were dozens of white circles drawn with chalk, three meters in diameter and at a distance of two-and-a-half meters from each other, occupying much of the green space, reports Efe news.

The idea is that those who come to the park assign themselves a circle and do not step out of it ensuring that, at no time, are they less than two-and-a-half metres from other visitors.

"I think it's a good idea. It is not always easy to keep a distance and this helps, it allows you to visualize it very clearly. And they're even pretty," a resident told Efe news.

The idea is to avoid a repetition of what happened on the last few weekends, when San Francisco's parks were filled with people who did not respect social distancing norms and which led the city's mayor, London Breed, to threaten to close Dolores Park in early May.

In addition to Dolores Park, the city has also drawn circles on the ground of other green areas popular with residents including Little Marina Green, Washington Square and Jackson Playground.

This being a holiday weekend - Monday is a holiday - and a forecast of high temperatures and hot weather for the city are both factors expected to result in a large turnout at the parks.

San Francisco, with 881,000 inhabitants, was the first major US city to decree a lockdown and epidemiological experts are in agreement that this decision was one of the key reasons for the reduced impact coronavirus has had within the city: since the onset of the health crisis it has recorded only 2,320 coronavirus infections and 40 deaths.

The US has the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 1,600,782 and 95,972, according to the Johns Hopkins University.