Thiruvananthapuram: The Union Health Ministry has identified seven districts in Kerala as COVID-19 hotspots and drafted them in the 'Red Zone' category where the risk of coronavirus spread remains very high.
Red Zone
The districts in the list are: Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Malappuram, Ernakulam, Pathanamthitta and Thiruvananthapuram.
The ministry has identified 170 districts across the country in the Red Zone. Hotspots are those districts which are reporting more number of cases or where the rate of growth of COVID-19 cases is high.
Orange Zone
Six districts in the state - Thrissur, Palakkad, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Idukki, Kollam - have been inlcuded in non-hotspot 'Orange Zone' where restrictions should be continued to check the spread of the virus.
Green Zone
According to the ministry, Kozhikode is the only district in the 'Green Zone'. This means it is the safest district in the state.
Addressing the daily briefing to provide updates on coronavirus situation in the country, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health Lav Agarwal said that states have been asked to classify districts witnessing higher number of cases as hotspots, districts where some cases have been found as non-hotspots, and those which have reported no cases as green zones.
Classification Criteria
Districts witnessing high number of cases or high growth rate of infections are being marked as hotspots; districts where some cases have been found as non-hotspots; and those which have reported no cases as green zones.
Containment operation would be deemed over when there is no case reported in 28 days from an area after last case tests negative. Hotspots (designated red zones) will be assumed to be undertaking effective containment activities, if no case is reported in next 14 days (designated orange zones) will be deemed successful in containment, if no case is reported for 28 days (designated green zones)
A detailed direction has been issued to states stating consolidated efforts are required to utilise this period of lockdown to curb the spread of the virus.
"There is no community transmission in the country so far. What we are seeing is some local outbreaks and clusters, where cluster and outbreak containment strategies are being adopted," he said.
The districts which have not reported any cases yet have also been directed to work on cluster containment plans, he said.
In order to break the chain of transmission, focus needs to be on contact tracing, monitoring and clinical management. States have been asked to uniformly implement the containment plan in every district across the country, Agarwal said.
He said the cabinet secretary held a video conference on Wednesday with all chief secretaries, DGPs, health secretaries, collectors, SPs, municipal commissioners and CMOs where hot spots was discussed and orientation on field level implementation of containment strategy was given.
They were told about large outbreak containment strategies, cluster containment strategies. Delineation of buffer and containment zone, parameter mapping, defining of entry and exit points were also discussed in detail, he said.
The joint secretary said movement of people will not be allowed in containment zones, except for those related with essential services, and special teams will search for new cases and samples will be collected and tested as per sampling criteria.
The officials said that health facilities in buffer zone outside the containment zone will be oriented and people facing Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) and influenza-like symptoms will be tested there.
"Special teams have been formed which will work in containment zone and do contact tracing and house-to-house surveys. Cases of fever, cough and breathlessness will be identified in the survey and requisite action will be taken as per protocol," Agarwal said, adding that there has been no community transmissions so far but some local outbreaks.
"We have told states that besides the hotspots identified by the Centre, states who are fighting the battle at field level may declare additional districts as hotspot districts and take required action accordingly," he said.
Besides health staff, services of local revenue and corporation staff and volunteers will also be utilized in the special teams which will do contact tracing, survey and surveillance.
Even in those districts which are not infected, community engagement needs to be undertaken to upgrade health infrastructure and dedicated COVID hospitals need to be set up, the official said, adding monitoring and testing of cases with SARI and influenza-like illness (ILI) symptoms need to be done.
Districts have been told to promote proper pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions and to orient all staff involved in infection control practices and proactively train relevant staff in clinical management.
He further said 73 private labs have been given approval for conducting COVID-19 tests out of which 22 labs are currently testing.
