The Union Health Ministry has finalised the list of containment zones and decided all major metro cities across the country will remain as ‘red zones’ even after the lockdown ends on May 3rd, 2020.

A total of 733 districts have been divided across India into Red, Orange and Green Zones. These metropolitan cities include – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad.

Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan, in a letter to chief secretaries of all states and Union Territories, designated districts into Red, Orange and Green Zones.

The districts were earlier designated as hotspots / red-zones, orange zones and green zones primarily based on the cumulative cases reported and the doubling rate.

“Since recovery rates have gone up, the districts are now being designated across various zones duly broad-basing the criteria. This classification is multi-factorial and takes into consideration incidence of cases, doubling rate, extent of testing and surveillance feedback to classify the districts. A district will be considered under Gleen Zone, if there are no confirmed cases so far or there is no reported case since last 21 days in the district,” Sudan wrote.

Sudan added, “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 Ministry of Home Affairs under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.”

For the districts having one or more municipal corporations, the corporations and other areas of districts will be treated as separate units.

If one or more of these units have reported no cases for the last 21 days, they can be considered as one level lower in zonal classification, in case the district is in Red/Orange Zone, Sudan mentioned.

“District authorities should, however, exercise due caution in such areas so that these areas remain free from COVID19 cases. It is critical to ensure that necessary action for containment so as to break the chain of transmission of the virus is initiated in both red and orange zone districts reporting confirmed cases,” the letter read.

The Union Health Ministry has asked for stringent measures to be taken in these areas. The containment zones in these districts have been delineated based on 

• Mapping of cases and contacts
• Geographical dispersion of cases and contacts
• The area with well-demarcated perimeter
• Enforceability

As per the Health Minister, there are 130 Red Zones, 284 Orange Zones and 319 Gree Zones in the country.

Check out the full list:

Photo: Twitter