NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday said more than half of all Indian districts are currently reporting COVID-19 cases and they will all be brought under active containment strategy to break the chain of viral transmission and ensure cases don’t spread out of these areas.
Health Ministry today wrote to all states dividing 712 Indian districts into three segments — red zone or hotspot districts with large number of absolute COVID cases and high case doubling rate; non-hot spot districts reporting COVID cases with potential to convert into hotspot zones and green districts currently not reporting any COVID case.
There are presently 170 hotspot districts in India where active lockdown and containment will be practiced to do house to house surveys and case detection and management. No non-essential service will be allowed in these districts and there will be entry and exit points to these districts where surveillance teams will keep records of people going in and out.
In the 207 non-hotspot districts which are reporting few cases but have the potential to convert into hotspots, the Centre has asked states to start cluster containment work through active contact tracing and checking of people for pneumonia or influenza like illness.
Even in green districts the Centre has asked states to look for people with respiratory distress and test them.
As of today, India has 11,439 cases and 377 deaths with the Centre reiterating that there’s no community transmission in India yet and lockdown and containment strategy is meant to ensure infections are controlled and managed within the 377 districts and do not spread out.