VIJAYAWADA: A mandal with more than four active Covid-19 cases or one with more than 50 contacts of a positive case or where local/community transmission is observed will be designated as red zone in the State, according to the guidelines issued by the health department. There are 51 such mandals in 11 districts (as on April 19) and the number may increase, according to officials, with more positive cases emerging every day.
Local/community transmission basically means authorities are unable to trace the source of the infection.
After the State has decided to take a mandal as an administrative unit for the purpose of containment and control of the pandemic, the health department issued guidelines for identifying the same. A mandal will be declared a red zone even if it has multiple containment zones within the mandal, according to Special Chief Secretary (health) KS Jawahar Reddy’s order. As of April 20, there are 166 clusters in 11 districts, up by eight compared to April 18.
“Stricter containment measures shall be enforced in these mandals. No activity, whatsoever, will be allowed within containment clusters and strict perimeter control shall be enforced in red mandals,” the order issued on Tuesday said. Similarly, mandals having less than four positive cases will be declared orange zone, signalling only a limited outbreak with only one containment cluster in the entire mandal. There are 47 such mandals (as of April 19). While no activity will be permitted in the containment cluster and strict perimeter control would be enforced, limited industrial activity outside the cluster can be resumed subject to the standard operating procedure given by industries department.
“The purpose of demarcation is to ensure complete containment of virus transmission and at the same time give a few relaxations on a certain restrictions in orange and green zones,” a senior official from the department explained. A red zone becomes orange if there is no new positive case for 14 days. And if there is no new positive for another 14 days, orange zone will be designated as green.
The containment operations will be scaled down if no laboratory confirmed Covid-19 positive case is reported from the cluster and buffer zones for at least 4 weeks after the last confirmed case has been isolated and all his/her contacts are followed up for 28 days. “The containment operations shall be deemed to be over 28 days from the discharge of the last confirmed case from the designated health facility. All District Collectors as incident commanders will take steps accordingly,” the guidelines said.
166 containment clusters in 11 districts
A red zone becomes orange if there is no new positive case for 14 days. And if there is no new positive for another 14 days, orange zone will be designated as green
Red Zones
51 mandals 11 districts
(AS ON APRIL 19)
Stricter containment measures shall be enforced. No activity will be allowed within containment clusters
and strict perimeter control shall be enforced in red mandals
ORANGE ZONES
47 mandals 11 districts
(AS ON APRIL 19)
No activity will be permitted in the containment cluster and strict perimeter control would be enforced; Limited industrial activity outside the cluster can be resumed