Lockdown 3.0 extended for 2 weeks, India divide into red, orange & green zones

Lockdown 3.0 extended for 2 weeks, India divide into red, orange & green zones:-

Introduction:-

The ministry of hone affairs (MHA) on Friday extended the nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the novel corona virus by another two weeks or 14 days.
This is in addition to extended lockdown due to end on May 4as announced by Prime minister Narendra Modi. Directives mention in the order will come into effect on May 4 onwards.
Exceptions to the lockdown have been issued after considering the risk-profiling of various districts across the country. The MHA has also issued specific guidelines to regulate different economic activities during this period.
Movement of individuals for non- essential activities will remain suspended in all zones from 7pm to 7am.

Criteria for identifying of districts as follows:-

Red & green and orange zones have been spelt out in detail in the letter dated April,30 2020 issued by the Ministry of health.
The green zone will be identified with either zero confirmed case in the last 21 days.
The red zone classified as it will take into account the total number of active cases, doubling rate of confirmed cases.
And the districts which are neither defined as red nor green, shall be classified as orange zones. The classification of districts into Red, Green & Orange zones will be shared by MOHFW with the states and union Territories ona weekly basis, or earlier, as required.

Districts spetls in three zones:-

For red zone:
Red zone will be so intensified surveillance protocols, contact tracing and 100% coverage of Aarogya Setu app containment zones will so house to house surveillance , home/ institutional quarantining of affected , and clinical management . Strict perimeter will be ensured.

Allowed -(With restrictions & social distancing )

• Movements of individuals and vehicles with a maximum of 2 person in four- wheelar vehicles, and with no pillion rider in case of the two wheelers.
• Special economic zone
• Manufacturing units of essential good, including drug, Pharmaceuticals.
• Manufacturing of IT hardware.
• Jute industry with staggered shifts and units of packaging materials.
• E commerce activities only in respect of essentials goods.
• All government offices.
• Food processing units.
• All agricultural activities.

For orange zone:

Allowed

In addition to activities permitted in red zone, taxis and cab aggrrgates will be permitted with 1 driver & 1 passenger only.

Inter district movement of individuals and vehicles will be allowed for permitted activities only.

Four wheeler vehicles will have maximum two passengers besides the driver and pillion riding will be allowed on two wheelers.

For Green zone:

According to the Health Ministry, a hotspot which has not seen any fresh cases in the last 28 days can be turned into a green zone.
Several relaxations in lockdown in green zone areas were allowed in the consolidated guidelines by the MHA. More relaxations are expected to be announced soon.
The MHA had said that offices could run with limited occupancy and social distancing norms. Essential services and small-scale industries have also been allowed to function.
However, large gatherings, the opening of educational institutions, inter-state travel from these zones and private vehicles have not been allowed.
A total of 207 non-hotspot districts have been put under this category.

WHY ZONES NEED TO BE IDENTIFIED:

• Containment zones are created to map the local transmission of the disease and prevent the contagion from spreading.
• The rapid response team (RRT) identifies containment zones based on the extent of cases/contacts listed and mapped by them.
• Covid-19 affected areas in India have been divided into two zones- Containment zone and Buffer Zone.Containment zones have been divided into sectors with 50 houses each (30 houses in difficult areas).
• The cluster-containment strategy has yielded positive resultsThe health ministry has also created a buffer zone of an additional 5-kilometre radius (7 km in rural areas)/administrative boundary of including neighbouring districts/peri-urban zone shall also be identified. 
• The efforts are in consonance with the government's micro plan to contain local coronavirus transmission.
• The inclusion criteria require a district to be designated a red zone if it satisfies any one of the three stated conditions. But the second and the third conditions make little sense.

Resources : Indiatvnews,The Hindu