The government has updated the list of hotspots across the country after a secretary level video conference meeting on April 30 with the states for the week after May 3.
As per a letter released by the Union Health Ministry, "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."
Based on the new guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health, all districts in the country have been classified as hotspots and non-hotspots based on whether or not confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported there.
Moreover, it says that the 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 Green Zone, if there are no confirmed cases so far or there is no reported case since last 21 days in the district.
Here is the letter outlining the zones according to states:
But, what are these hotspots and non-hotspot areas? And, what are the ‘red’, ‘orange’ and ‘green’ zones as often described in news reports? Here’s all you need to know:
Hotspots, non-hotspots and non-infected districts have been interchangeably used as ‘red’, ‘orange’ and ‘green’ zones, respectively.
These are areas reporting a large number of cases or high growth rates such as Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra, New Delhi or Indore in Madhya Pradesh.
Inclusion criteria:
> Highest case-load districts contributing to over 80 percent of cases in India, or
> Highest case-load districts contributing to more than 80 percent of cases for each state in the country, or
> Districts with doubling rate at less than four days (calculated every Monday for last seven days, to be determined by the state government).
On April 15, there were 170 hotspots in the country. This included 123 hotspot districts with large outbreaks and 47 hotspot districts with clusters.
Districts that do not have enough confirmed cases to meet the ‘red zone’, but are being seen as potential hotspots, are part of the ‘orange zone’.
On April 15, there were 207 non-hotspot districts in the country with clusters.
A hotspot can be categorised as a non-hotspot area if no new confirmed case is reported there for 14 consecutive days. Further, a non-hotspot area can become a ‘green zone’ if no new confirmed case is reported for 14 consecutive days. Thus, a ‘red zone’ can potentially become a ‘green zone’ if no new cases are reported for 28 consecutive days.
MHA has said, “containment operation would be deemed over when there is no case reported in 28 days from an area after the last case tests negative.”
Lockdown restrictions related to agriculture and industrial activities were eased to some extent in some non-hotspots and green zones of the country on April 20.
