In a fortnight, number of COVID-19 hotspot districts decreases to 129 from 170

New Delhi, April 28

The number of Covid-19 hotspot districts in India as on Wednesday morning has come down to 129 from 170 in a fortnight. In the same period, the number of infection-free districts or green zones, too, have decreased from 325 to 307, according to official sources.

During this time, the number of non-hotspot districts, also known as orange zones, increased from 207 to 297, the official sources said.

The Centre had classified districts into three categories on April 15. Those with high load of Covid-19 cases or having a high growth rate of the disease are marked as hotspots or red zones, while those with considerably fewer Covid-19 cases fall in the orange zone or non-hotspots. Districts with no Covid-19 cases are categorised as green zones.

However, a red zone or an orange zone district can be demarcated as green zone if no new Covid-19 case is reported from those places for at least 28 days and 14 days, respectively.

On April 15, the Centre had declared 170 districts across 25 states and Union Territories as Covid-19 hotspots. Of these, as many as 123 were hotspot districts with large outbreaks and 47 with clusters. It had also said a total of 325 districts had not reported any Covid-19 case because of actions initiated at field level.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, on Tuesday, said 80 districts in the country had not reported any new case of Covid-19 in last seven days while a total of 47 districts had not registered any fresh case in the last 14 days. Also, as many as 39 districts had not reported any instance of the infection in the last 21 days with 17 districts with no new Covid-19 case for the last 28 days, he added.

The government has already identified 15 districts in nine states, including Delhi, Maharashtra and Gujarat, as having “high case load”. Of these, seven — Hyderabad (Telangana), Pune (Maharashtra), Jaipur (Rajasthan), Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Mumbai (Maharashtra) and Delhi — show particularly high case volumes.

Other high case load places that are “critical” in the battle against Covid-19 include Vadodara (Gujarat), Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Agra (Uttar Pradesh), Thane (Maharashtra), Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and Surat (Gujarat).

“These 15 districts are critical in our battle against Covid-19. Of them, seven show particularly high case volumes. India’s success in battling Covid-19 is dependent on them. We must aggressively monitor, contain, test, treat in these districts! We must win here,” Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant tweeted on Monday.

A senior health minister said the doubling time of Covid-19 cases in India was three to 3.25 days before the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25, and now it was 10.2 to 10.9 days.

The death toll due to Covid-19 rose to 1,007 and the number of cases climbed to 31,332 in the country on Wednesday, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 9,318; followed by Gujarat at 3,744; Delhi 3,314; Madhya Pradesh 2,387; Rajasthan 2,364; Tamil Nadu 2,058 and Uttar Pradesh at 2,053. The number of Covid-19 cases has gone up to 1,259 in Andhra Pradesh and 1,004 in Telangana. PTI

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