The Centre on Friday released a list classifying 733 districts across India into red, orange and green zones. In Kerala, two districts have been designated as red zones, 10 as orange zones and two districts as green zones.
Kannur and Kottayam are the districts declared as red zones in Kerala. Both districts have seen the highest number of people under treatment for COVID-19. Kannur district has seen an exponential rise in the number of COVID-19 positive instances in the past two weeks, with 47 people presently under treatment.
In districts deemed as red zones, the restrictions of lockdown will continue to apply and may not be lifted post May 3. Moreover, intra-district and inter-district travel will also be subjected to restrictions.
Meanwhile, Kottayam, which was earlier a green zone, also witnessed a steady rise in people being infected by the disease in the past weeks. The district now has a total of 18 people under treatment as of the update on Thursday night.
The orange zone districts in Kerala are Kasaragod, Idukki, Kozhikode, Kollam, Palakkad, Pathanmatihtta, Malappuram, Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha and Thrissur.
Though Idukki is in the orange zone, the number of positive people under treatment at present is 14, just a bit lower than Kottayam. The next highest ranking in the orange list is Kollam, with 12 people under treatment. The other districts classified in the orange zone have less than 10 COVID-19 patients at present.
Meanwhile, the two districts in green zones are Ernakulam and Wayanad. Wayanad district has no active COVID-19 patient.
In a notable difference, though Ernakulam, Pathanamthitta and Palakkad have only one person each infected with the pandemic, Ernakulam has been classified as a green zone but the other two are orange zones.
Also, though there are no COVID-19 positive cases in Thrissur and Alappuzha districts at present, it has also been included in the orange zone.
Taking the differences pointed out by the state officials in classification of districts as different zones into consideration, the Centre has said that the list is dynamic and that it will be reviewed on a weekly basis. The Chief Secretaries of all states and Union territories have been handed over a letter stating this.
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.
The Centre has declared a total of 733 districts across all states and UTs 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 total in the country.
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