The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in its communication to the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories across the country, has defined the final list of districts that will be classified under red, orange and green zones, for the week after 3 May 2020. 

UDAIPUR is classified under orange category, and is one among the 284 districts of India and among the 19 districts of Rajasthan that have been so classified. Out of a total of 33 districts in Rajasthan, 8 have been put under the red category, while 19 are in orange and 6 are in the green category.  Across India, 130 districts have been marked in the  red category, while 319 are under green.

All this, while India records its biggest single day spike in COVID19 cases, with 1,993 being reported in the last 24 hours, including 77 deaths.  The total number of cases in India cross the 35,000  mark with 1,152 deaths.

This communication was done on 30 April after the video conference between the Chief Secretaries and Secretary Health of all States and Union territories, which was chaired by the Cabinet Secretary. Calling the classification as pockets of intervention, Preeti Sudan, IAS and Secretary Health, said that the identification of such pockets and the resultant classification was important for a focused management of COVID19 at the ground level. Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra unassumedly lead in the list of red zones.

Uttarpradesh and Mahashtra have the maximum 19 and 14 red zones, with Delhi having a major 11 areas marked as red zones. Of the 7 sister states in the North East, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland have no red or orange zones, while Meghalaya has just one red zone. Tripura has 2 orange zones and the rest are green.

States and Union Territories are free to classify additional districts in red or orange zones, but will not be allowed to alter the existing list of red and orange classification.  The centre will change the classification to a lower risk rung, only if there are no reported cases in the last 21 days.

States have been instructed, that in case of red or orange zones, containment zones have to be delineated based on mapping of cases and contacts, geographical dispersion of cases and contact, area with demarcated perimeter and enforceability.

Containment zones based on the above, can be defined for residential colonies, mohallas, municipal wards, police station area, gram panchayats, blocks, etc.

For activies permitted under Orange and Green zone, please look forward to the new update on UdaipurTimes.