During his speech on 14th April 2020, PM Modi announced that some districts or zones could see a gradual reduction in lockdown measures. However, restrictions would remain in places that are hotspots of COVID-19. Complete Coverage: Coronavirus
Crux of the Matter
What are hotspots? The Ministry of Health declared on Wednesday that there are 170 districts in India that have been categorized as hotspots and 207 districts as non-hotspots. As per government guidelines, hotspots (red zones) are areas or zones that have reported more than 80% of the cases in the state or country. Places, where the doubling rate of infection is less than 4 days (calculated every Monday for the last 7 days), will also be considered as a red zone as well.
In the daily briefing on Coronavirus, the Joint Secretary of Health Ministry Luv Agarwal said that all the States have been advised to categorize districts with high cases as hotspots, fewer cases as non-hotspots, and no cases as green zones. He added that cluster containment measures would be strictly followed at non-hotspots as they have the potential to turn into a red zone.
Utilizing Lockdown 2.0 The government has given guidelines to the state to effectively utilize the Lockdown 2.0 to convert red zones to orange zones and in turn to green zones. A red zone will become an orange zone if no fresh cases are reported for 14 straight days. If cases are not reported for 28 straight days, then that zone would be categorised as a green zone. Some of the hotspots in India are Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Ahmedabad, all 9 districts of NCR of Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Banswara, Coimbatore, Tuticorin, Agra, Moradabad, etc. To see the full list, click here.
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Tamil Nadu has the highest number of hotspots (22), followed by Rajasthan (14), UP (13) and Maharashtra (12).
While the number of red zones is on a rise, Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district became the first district to make a comeback after being listed as one.
E-commerce major Amazon is making efforts to work with local authorities in delivering essential supplies to the people living in red zones and containment zones across the country. To start with, the online retailer along with Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday made contactless deliveries to a containment zone in Mumbai on a pilot basis.
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