Colour-coding of districts in battle against COVID-19

Districts are classified as red, orange and green zones on the basis of incidence of coronavirus cases.

What are red-zone districts?
These districts have the highest incidence of cases. Before April 15, the ministry classified a district as red zone if it reported more than 15 cases. However, now a district with highest case load contributing to more than 80% cases of each state or a district with doubling rate less than 4 days would be classified as red zone district.


What are orange and green-zone districts?
A district that has not reported a single case in last 14 days is an orange zone district. A green zone district is one which has not reported any case over 28 days.

Can districts change zones?
The districts change zones if they don’t report cases. For example, Gondia (Maharashtra), Devangere (Karnataka) and Lakhi Sarai (Bihar) have moved from orange to green districts. Similarly, Pilibhit (UP) and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Punjab) have moved from green to orange after they reported cases.

How are containment zones being marked?
The containment zones are marked if more than 4 cases of coronavirus are reported. If these are from one building, the entire building is sealed. Then this building/house is taken as the centre point and a 0.5 km radius is marked geographically and made into a containment zone. Health workers, ASHA workers and police take over the management of this containment zone. They are responsible for providing essential services in the zone. A 1-km radius is marked around this zone as buffer zone. Partial movement of people is allowed here.

How much discretion is allowed to district administration?
The ground level coordination is the responsibility of the district magistrate. This would mean that the police and health officials can exercise discretion on certain activities to be allowed. For instance, in case there is an outbreak in an area where the local vegetable vendors are residing, the police can decide to clamp down restrictions on their movement inside colonies near containment zone.

What restrictions are imposed in a red zone?
The entire red zone does not have traffic or movement restrictions. The district administration with the help of surveillance teams marks out containment zones in red zone districts.