Lockdown 2.0: What are the different color zones?

What are red, green and orange color zones?

To handle the coronavirus pandemic situation in a structured way, the Union ministry of health and family welfare has decided to categorize the country into red, orange, and green zones. This will depend on the number of coronavirus cases extended during the period of lockdown. And this might result in limited services to function is the safe zones. Check out what this categorization means:

  • Red Zone

As per the ministry, the red zone is the hotspot; it is a district or city that contributes 80% of the cases in the state. These areas have a large number of coronavirus cases reported. The health ministry has classified 170 hotspot districts under the red zone. The government will aim to provide door to door facilities in these areas. To name a few, Mumbai (873) in Maharashtra, South Delhi (332 ), Hyderabad (213) in Telangana, Jaipur (170) in Rajasthan and Kasaragod (155) in Kerala are top five districts which have reported a large number of positive cases.

  • Orange zone

These will be the area that had a limited number of cases in the past with no active case recently. Here, minimum activities like opening of limited public transport, harvesting of farm products will be allowed. Essential services like grocery stores would be allowed to function freely. A red zone can turn orange when no cases are reported in 14 days. The Delhi government has designated areas with one or two positive cases as an orange zone. The government also marked 207 other districts as potential.

  • Green zones

For this zone, the ministry says that the district with no positive cases can come under this zone. Green zones will be districts where there is no COVID-19 case. Sources said there are 400 districts, where there have been no COVID-19 cases. Exemptions may be given in these sectors as per the government’s plan. Opening of liquor shops and other essential items that play a major role in generating state revenue may get an extension in these areas.

Any place which had more than 15 cases will be considered a Red zone, where there will be no activity.

The goal of this plan is that the states should utilize the extended lockdown period to turn the red zones into the green zone.