Kalimpong a Non hotspot district : 170 districts are hotspots (Red zone), 207 non-hotspot (Orange zone) districts and rest are green zone

Workers place a banner after erecting a road blockade at an identified red zone area of Shrinagar for COVID-19 during a nationwide lockdown in the wake of coronavirus pandemic. (Image: PTI)

KalimNews and Agencies, Kalimpong, 15 April 2020: Kalimpong is relieved for not being designated as a Hotspot district by the Union Health ministry, as declared earlier a Hotspot by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the state. 

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India has identified 170 districts as coronavirus hotspots (Red Zone) and 207 as potential hotspots called Non Hotspot (Orange Zone) and the rest are Green Zones. 

Regions which have high frequency of infection and death, including in Delhi and Mumbai, have been designated as Red Zones.

Hotspot districts with large outbreaks include 22 districts from Tamil Nadu, 11 each from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, 9 from Uttar Pradesh, 8 from Telengana, 6 from Kerela, 5 from Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, 4 from West Bengal and 3 from Karanataka.

The 4 districts of West Bengal are Kolkata, Howrah, Medinipur East, and 24 Paraganas North. The name of Kalimpong is not there, instead it is included in the 207 Non Hotspot district. 
8 districts of the state are amongst the 207 Non Hotspot districts and they are  Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Hoogly, Nadia, West Burdwan, Midnapore, South 24 Pargana and Darjeeling.
It indicates that Kalimpong is out of danger though not completely but only if the status does not change to high risk and contagious district with no report of further new confirmed positive Covid-19 cases.

According to the incidence of positive cases in a district, all the districts of the country are classified into three categories such as Hotspots (Red Zone), Non-Hotspots (Orange Zone) and Green Zone.

The Government of India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has stated that those districts that have double cases every four days or which require focused attention for large numbers of cases or having high growth rate of infections are designated as Red Zones, 170 such 22 Hotspot districts are included in this class.Of them there are 123 hotspot districts with large outbreaks and 47 hotspot districts with clusters in 25 states and Union territories.

The state with highest number of districts designated as hotspots is Tamil Nadu, with 22 of its 27 districts, followed by Maharashtra with 14, Uttar Pradesh with 13, Rajasthan with 12, Andhra Pradesh with 11, Delhi with 10.

Telangana, which has over 600 cases, is the second state with nine hotspot districts, followed by Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka with eight each, Kerala with seven, and Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana with six each. Assam and Himachal Pradesh have five such districts each, all of them with cluster outbreaks. Bihar and West Bengal have four districts each in the Red Zone.

There are 207 Non-Hotspot districts with clusters in 27 states which are not Hotspots but where cases of Covid-19 have been reported.

The third category which has no report of Covid 19 at all are Green Zone districts.

Red Zone regions can be downgraded to Orange Zone if no positive cases are recorded in 14 days, while they can be designated Green Zones (non-infected districts) if no positive and confirmed cases are reported for 28 days.

A zone in case of succesive reports of less number or no cases or with increase of numbers may be reclassified and converted into another zone.

The hospitals are also classified into three categories and they are: COVID Care Centres for mild cases or very mild cases, COVID Health Centres for clinical moderate cases requiring oxygen support and COVID Dedicated Hospitals for severe & critical cases with ventilator support.

The statement issued by the ministry also states that there is a possibility of some degree of relaxation from the lockdown from April 20 in areas that have shown fewer incidences of the virus. Industrial units in rural areas will be allowed to function from April 20 provided they follow social distancing norms while all kinds of public transport will be barred and public places closed till May 3.