New classification of zones as Centre lists 130 districts as red

New Delhi, May 02: The government has listed 130 districts as hotspots of the coronavirus disease. The number of hotspot districts is down from 170.

The Health Ministry removed 92 districts from the 170 that it had classified as coronavirus hotspots on April 15. It, however, added 52 new districts to the list. Currently, there are 130 red zones in the total 733 districts in the country.

The fresh classification to be followed by all states and Union Territories for a week from May 3, 284 districts have been identified as orange zones. This number is up from 207 districts. The Health Ministry classified Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad as red zones due to the high case loads and clusters.

Joint secretary, health ministry, Lav Agarwal said that this time, they had broadened the criteria. The areas have been labelled also keeping in mind the fact that these should not become potential hotspots if relaxations are given as per the green zone criteria.

There are some places in the green zones but their proximity to areas where case load is high makes them vulnerable and hence those areas have also been designated as red or orange zones in the new list, Agarwal also said.

The red zones will be defined by taking into account the total number of active cases, the doubling rate of infections, extent of testing and surveillance feedback. In order to qualify as a green zone, an area would have had to report no new infections for three weeks. The classification will be dynamic and updated at least weekly as conditions change, Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan said.