Centre marks six districts of Telangana in Red Zone

Hyderabad: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), New Delhi has released an updated list of districts in all the States, which are classified under red, orange and green zones.

In Telangana, the MOHFW has assigned six districts in red zone, 18 districts in orange zone and nine districts in green zone.

The six districts that fall under the red zone in include Hyderabad, Suryapet, Rangareddy, Medchal/ Malkajgiri, Vikarabad and Warangal (Urban).

The 18 districts under Orange zones include Nizamabad, Jogulamba Gadwal, Nirmal, Nalgonda, Adilabad, Sangareddy, Kamareddy, Kumaram Bheem/ Asifabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mahabubnagar, Jagtial, Sircilla, Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Medak, Jangaon, Narayanpet and Mancherial.

As many as 9 districts from the State including Peddapally, Nagarkurnool, Mulugu, Kothagudem, Mahabubabad, Siddipet, Warangal (rural), Wanaparthy and Yadadri Bhuvangiri are under the green zone.

Secretary, MOHFW, New Delhi, Preeti Sudan in a letter to all Chief Secretaries said it was critical to ensure that necessary action for containment is taken to break the chain of transmission of the virus in red and orange districts, which are reporting confirmed cases.

In red and orange zones, containment action plan must be rolled out including stringent perimeter control, establishing clear entry and exit points, no movement except for medical emergencies and essential goods and services and no unchecked



influx of population.

In these containment zones, authorities must take up active search for cases through house to house surveillance by special teams formed for the purpose, testing of all cases as per the sampling guidelines, contact tracing and clinical management of all the cases must be taken up, Sudan suggested.

Earlier, the first list of red, orange and green zones in all the States from the MOHFW was released on April 15.  In that list, Telangana had eight hotspots including Hyderabad, Nizamabad, Warangal (Urban), Rangareddy, Jogulamba Gadwal, Medchal Malkajgiri, Karimnagar and Nirmal.

On April 15, Nizamabad, Gadwal, Nirmal and Karimnagar districts were classified as red zones and by May 1, i.e. after a fortnight, these districts have been included in orange zones.

However, in place of these four districts, two new districts Suryapet and Vikarabad were included in the red zone category.  On April 15, the State had 19 districts under orange zones and by May 1 there were 18 districts.

Earlier, the MOHFW said that if a district does not report coronavirus positive cases for 28 days, it can be considered as a green zone.

However, the Ministry officials have now relaxed the conditions to 21 days, which means a district will be considered under green zone, if there are no confirmed cases or no reported case since last 21 days in the district.