City classifies Covid zones for better checks, testing
nNEW DELHI: The Delhi government has categorised containment zones in the city into red, orange and green so that regular follow-ups in terms of surveillance, house-to-house health checks and testing continue in a systematic way, said a senior government official.
On Thursday, Delhi had 58 containment zones marked red. These are the ones in which Covid cases are surfacing frequently. As many as 36 were marked orange -- areas in which no fresh Covid case has been reported for the last 14 days. And, 49 green zones which used to be containment zones but containment efforts were scaled down after no fresh case was recorded there for 21 days, said a report prepared by the Delhi government which HT has seen.
There were 94 containment zones in the city, as on Thursday. Delhi’s chief secretary Vijay Dev said, “It’s a good sign that 85 containment zones in Delhi are today Covid-free or are approaching that stage (classified orange and green), compared to 58 zones that are still marked red. It shows that the strategy of containment zones has proved effective. Concerted action is being taken by the district administrations for ensuring that no more positive cases recur in orange and red zones so that they become green and orange within the prescribed timelines.”
While the government had prepared a heatmap of containment zones with the help of Geospatial Delhi Limited (GSDL) – its own subsidiary which applies analytical tools for mapping and data crunching – it prepared its first colour-coded report, on a pilot basis, on Wednesday. It recorded 91 containment zones – 51 Red and 40 Orange. The number of Green zones was 45.
Within the next 24 hours, containment efforts were scaled down in four areas but seven areas were notified as new containment zones. So, the total number increased by three, government records showed.
A senior government official said with Thursday’s assessment of the zones being done,
The move has come after the Central government allowed states to demarcate zones in the fourth phase of the lockdown
NUMBERS OF ZONES
MAY 26
MAY 27
MAY 28
GREEN ZONES
Areas where containment measures have been scaled down due to no new case in 21 days
GREEN
ORANGE ZONES Areas where no case has been reported for at least 14 days the district magistrates have been directed to further streamline their efforts from Friday under the SHIELD initiative to ensure the reds change into oranges and the oranges change into green at the earliest. “The initiative has been immensely effective and the numbers show the results,” the official added.
The SHIELD initiative of the Delhi government translates to the sealing of the area, home quarantine of all residents, isolation and tracing of contacts, essentials to be supplied at doorstep, local sanitisation and doorto-door health checks.
NOMENCLATURE ISSUE
Initially, there was confusion regarding nomenclature. The central government had the sole authority to categorise red, orange and green zones across states. Under the central guidelines, all revenue districts in Delhi were marked red, leading to limited relaxations that could be implemented across the citystate in terms of business and commerce activities and public
ORANGE
RED TOTAL
DISTRICT MAGISTRATES HAVE BEEN DIRECTED TO FURTHER STREAMLINE THEIR EFFORTS FROM FRIDAY UNDER THE SHIELD INITIATIVE
transport during the lockdown.
Within Delhi, however, the city government used the nomenclature red zone for all containment zones and there were no orange or green zones as such. With the onset of the fourth phase of the nationwide lockdown on May 18, the union government allowed the state governments to determine red, orange and green zones on their own.
On May 20, following a meeting between Delhi’s lieutenant governor (L-G) Anil Baijal and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal the Delhi government had issued directions to the health department to come up with a plan on red, range and green zones.
Jugal Kishore, head of community medicines department in Safdarjung Hospital said, “After such categorisation, the government must ensure that surveillance teams continue to be active for all three categories of containment zones and that there are medical teams to guide them. They can consider using trained volunteers from within communities to monitor the efficiency of the surveillance and testing mechanism. And rapid action teams should continue to be active in data collection of contact tracing and surveillance, their analysis and interpretation, and guide the government.”