Centre identifies red, orange, green zones for week after May 3

Coronavirus (Covid-19): With the government exploring modalities for relaxations after May 3, when the nationwide lockdown is scheduled to end, the Union Health Ministry has issued a revised list of districts under red, orange and green zones. A total of 130 districts across the country have been placed under the red zone, while 284 and 319 districts have been identified as orange and green zones, respectively.

This revised classification is based on the incidence of cases, doubling rate, the extent of testing and surveillance feedback. As per the revised criteria, Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan, in a letter to state chief secretaries, said, green zones are districts which haven't reported a fresh case in 21 days, down from the 28 days earlier. The orange zones are those with a few cases, and the red ones have a large number of cases.

In the new classification, metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai and Ahmedabad have been designated as red zones. Among the states and UTs which have 10 or more districts in the red zone are Delhi, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

All states are requested to delineate the containment zones and buffer zones in the identified red and orange zone districts and notify the same, Sudan wrote in the letter.

The list will be revised on a weekly basis or earlier and communicated to states for further follow-up action in consonance with the directions issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

(Inputs and image from theindianexpress.com)