Kottayam and Kannur will continue to be in the Red zone even after lockdown period ends on May 3, Union health ministry has informed.

Wayanad and Ernakulam districts will come under Green zone while the remaining 10 districts in the state will be in Orange zone.

The classification will change when the centre revises the list after one week.

The list was prepared considering incidence of cases, doubling rate, extent of testing and surveillance feedback, said Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan.

In all, 130 districts in the country have been classified as Red zone, 284 districts Orange and 319 in Green.

The Centre has allowed state governments to designate additional red or orange zones based on state-level feedback. But states should not relax the zonal classification of districts under Red or Orange.

Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of Red zones at 19, followed by Maharashtra at 14.

Tamil Nadu has 12, while all of Delhi’s 11 districts have been marked as Red zones.

Both Bengaluru urban and rural areas as well as Mysuru have been classified as Red zones.

Classification criteria

Red zone: A district will be designated as Red zone if it contributes more than 80% cases of each state or a district with doubling rate less than 4 days.

Orange zone: A district will come under this category if it has not reported a single case in the last 14 days.

Green zone: Districts that have not reported even a single case for the last 21 days.