The Indian government on Friday designated 733 districts across all states and Union Territories into Red, Orange and Green Zones. Currently, there are 130 districts in the red zone, 284 in the orange zone and 319 in the green zone.
In districts deemed as red zones, the restrictions of lockdown will continue to apply and may not be lifted after May 3. Moreover, intra-district and inter-district travel will also be subjected to restrictions.
Of the 33 districts in Telangana, six have been marked as red zones, while 18 have been categorised as orange zones and nine are marked as green zones. Here's the full list, as per data released by the Centre.
Hyderabad is the red zone with the most number of cases followed by the districts of Ranga Reddy and Medchal-Malakjgiri, which include parts of Cyberabad and Secunderabad, respectively. The state government has categorised the entire area as the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) category, but the Centre has not. Vikarabad and Warangal Urban are the remaining two red zones.
Karimnagar, which was one of the first areas in the state to report a large influx of cases after 10 Indonesian preachers from the Tablighi Jamaat tested positive, has been classified as an orange zone. The other orange zones are Jogulamba Gadwal, Nirmal, Nalgonda, Adilabad, Sangareddy, Kamareddy, Asifabad, Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar, Jagtial, Rajanna Sircilla, Jayashankar-Bhupalpally, Medak, Jangaon, Narayanpet and Mancherial
Peddapalli, Nagarkurnool, Mulugu, Bhadadri-Kothagudem, Mahabubad, Siddipet, Warangal Rural, Wanaparthy and Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri are the districts classified as green zones.
However, it is important to note that the Mancherial and Narayanpet, which have been categorised as orange zones, have no active cases of COVID-19, according to the state government.
In a press release earlier this week, KCR had said that in the GHMC region too, there were around 30 circles where there was not even a single positive case reported, while other circles had no active cases.
"Virus is confined only to a few circles of the GHMC," he had said.
It is possible that the state government may ask for a review of the districts and the category that they fall in.
In a letter to the Chief Secretaries of all states and Union territories, Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan noted that some states have already raised issues on inclusion of certain districts in the red-zone, and stated this is a dynamic list and will be reviewed on a weekly basis or earlier.
The Centre said that districts were designated as hotspots or red-zones, orange zones and green zones, primarily based on the incidence of cases, doubling rate, extent of testing and surveillance feedback to classify the districts. A district will be considered as an orange zone if it has not reported a case in the past 14 days. A district will be considered a green zone, if there are no confirmed cases so far or there is no reported case in the last 21 days, the guidelines said.
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