Delhi can now define its own ‘red zones’

The Centre on Sunday allowed state governments to classify and demarcate their own red, orange and green zones --- areas specified as per their vulnerability and presence of Covid-19 cases, a key demand of the Delhi government since the entire city was under the ‘red zone’.

Major relaxations that were announced by the Centre amid the nationwide lockdown were not applicable to the red zones, crippling Delhi’s efforts to jump start economic and business activity. The Union home ministry in its guidelines to states issued for the fourth version of the lockdown, which will stay in effect till May 31, has fixed broad rules for the states on which specific rules can be framed.

A red zone is an area where there are more than 10 Sarscov-2 positive cases. A red zones can have one or many containment zones to limit the spread of the cases. As on Sunday, Delhi had 73 containment zones.

On May 2, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had first raised the demand for the Centre to reconsider the demarcation of ‘red zones’, which, until Sunday, was being done on the basis of districts, across the country. “All the 11 districts of Delhi are in the red zone as per the Centre’s rule, meaning that the reported Covid-19 cases in each district is 10 or more. Because of this parameter, Delhi, being such a small city, will never be able to get out of the red zone. No economic activity will be able to restart because of this. This rule needs to change and should either be on the basis of containment zones or wards,” Kejriwal had said on May 2.

On Sunday, the Centre gave states and Union Territories a free hand to designate areas into red, green and orange zones. “With red and orange zones, containment zones and buffer zones will be demarcated by the district authorities, after taking into consideration the guidelines issued by the minister of health and family welfare (MOHFW),” the order stated.

“States may categorise districts/municipal corporations as red/orange/green zones. States may, however, also choose to categorise a sub-division/ward or any other appropriate administrative unit as red/orange/green zone after detailed analysis at their end, duly taking into consideration the geographical spread of cases, contacts and the zone of influence terms of disease spread,” read a letter written by Preeti Sudan, secretary, MOFW.

The Delhi government, responding to the guidelines, said, “Broadly, the Centre’s guidelines are in the right direction of opening up the economy and leaving it to states to work out the details.”

The Delhi government’s revised guidelines for the disposal of dead bodies of people with Covid-19 prohibit hospitals from collecting samples from the bodies.

The new standard operating procedures (SOP), issued Sunday, have to be followed for the disposal of the bodies of those who tested positive for the disease before death, a person whose sample had been collected before death and tested positive after, or for any person who died after being admitted to a hospital on suspicion of having the viral infection.

“No sample for Covid-19 test will be taken of a dead body. However, if doctors are satisfied from clinical examination that the cause of death may be Covid-19 infection, the dead body may be released as suspect Covid-19 infected dead body,” the order, issued by Delhi’s health secretary Padmini Singla, read.

So far, Covid-19 designated hospitals were testing those brought dead to the hospital and suspected to have the infection, before releasing the body.

The move is expected to help conserve testing kits.

Recently, the Union ministry of health changed the country’s discharge policy for Covid-19 patients to allow those with mild to moderate symptoms to go back home without two negative tests, which were earlier required for a discharge.

Only one negative swab test is required for those with severe infection, according to the revised guidelines.

The Delhi guidelines on disposing of dead bodies mentions four scenarios: when the death happens in a hospital, if the death happens in other government isolation facilities for mild cases, if the death happens outside of these health care facilities, or if there is an unclaimed body or a body found in a public space. The Sops state that in case if a person dies in a hospital or is brought dead to one, trained health care workers will have to handle and pack the body and provide a hearse van to carry the body to cremation or burial ground. After burial or cremation, the hearse van has to be properly disinfected. In case there are no relatives of the deceased, the body needs to be properly disinfected and kept in the mortuary; the hospital can decide if an autopsy is required.