Some states look beyond colour-coding

Raipur/Ranchi/Hyderabad: Colour-coding of zones primarily based on the prevalence of coronavirus illness (Covid-19) instances is dropping relevance in a number of states which are primarily specializing in containment areas as an alternative to comprise the an infection, in keeping with native officers.

For instance, authorities in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Punjab, West Bengal and Jharkhand have determined towards figuring out pink zone districts within the fourth part of the lockdown that started on May 18 with the Centre stress-free pointers to assist companies open after an unprecedented lockdown.

In the most recent lockdown pointers by the house ministry, states have been given the facility to outline pink, orange and inexperienced zones which have been instrumental within the technique for imposing area-specific curbs within the earlier part of curbs between May four and May 17. While stricter curbs had been applied in pink zones, orange zones obtained a number of relaxations. The guidelines had been considerably eased for inexperienced zones.

“Under the new guidelines, States and Union Territories (UTs) will now delineate Red, Green and Orange zones taking into consideration the parameters shared by the Health Ministry,” the federal government mentioned on May 17. These zones could be a district, or a municipal company, and even smaller administrative items reminiscent of sub-divisions.

Earlier, it was the Centre that got here out with two lists — on April 15 and May 1 — figuring out pink zones (with most Covid-19 instances), orange zones (with fewer infections) and inexperienced zones (Covid-19-free areas), although a number of states expressed dismay over the method. In the primary record, India had 130 pink zones, whereas the second record recognized 170 such areas.

The new pointers added that inside pink and orange zones, “containment and buffer zones will be as demarcated by the local authorities, after taking into consideration the Health Ministry guidelines”.

An official in Chhattisgarh, which has recognized 4 blocks as pink zones, mentioned: “We have gone by the central government rule, which allows just a locality or a block, instead of an entire district, to be declared a red zone,” mentioned the official who didn’t need to be named.

Till final week, 4 districts within the state had been within the pink zone outlined by the central authorities. Now, within the 4 pink zone blocks, Chhattisgarh has 44 containment centres, identical because it had on May 17. “The zones are declared keeping in mind the present situation and geographical area,” the official added.

The Centre has laid down some pointers for states to assist them outline the zones. The parameters embrace energetic instances, energetic instances per lakh inhabitants, doubling price and case fatality price, testing ratio and pattern positivity price. Similarly, it has requested native authorities to concentrate on mapping of instances, geographical dispersion of instances, and imposing strict perimeter management in case of containment zones, which may be broadly outlined as epicentres of infections.

On Saturday, Jharkhand positioned 21 districts with Covid-19 instances in orange zones. “At present, the state has no red zone district as none of the 24 districts… all 21 affected districts are placed in orange zones, and three other districts, which have not reported any case so far, are green zones,” mentioned state well being division principal secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni.

Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, too, have completed away with the idea of zones, and have taken a cluster-based method. Till May 17, Andhra Pradesh had 5 pink districts and Telangana six. Now, the main target is on Andhra’s 341 clusters and Telangana’s 130.

Andhra Pradesh’s nodal Covid-19 officer, Arja Sreekanth, mentioned clusters that report a number of contemporary instances in a five-day interval are categorised as “very active”. The two states have given powers to district collectors to determine these clusters and implement strict lockdown norms there. According to federal pointers, lockdown relaxations throughout the nation are usually not relevant to containment zones.

“The number of containment clusters keep changing on a day-to-day basis, depending on the increase or decrease in the number of Covid-19 cases,” S Subrahmanyam, an official in Andhra’s Covid-19 command management room, mentioned.

Kerala, too, has discontinued the colour-coding and adopted containment methods giving the police powers to not enable folks in these areas to maneuver out of their homes. Karnataka has adopted an analogous method. “The number of containment zones is a dynamic number which changes on a daily basis,” mentioned a Karnataka well being division official, who was not keen to be named.

“The colour categorization was needed in the initial stages to prevent quick spread of Covid to new areas in the district. We were able to contain the infection to certain areas, which shows the strategy worked…(now) the states should decide on how to manage the Covid-19 hot spots,” VK Paul, member incharge of well being, Niti Aayog, mentioned final week.