Chhattisgarh government identifies 44 COVID-19 containment zones

Raipur: The Chhattisgarh government has classified four development blocks in the state as red zones and 80 as orange zones to contain the spread of coronavirus, an official here said on Saturday. Apart from this, it has also declared 44 areas, from where COVID-19 cases were recently detected, as containment zones, the official said.

The state's health secretary Niharika Barik Singh had issued a notification regarding the classification of COVID-19 zones on Friday evening, and based on this, activities, including business, will be permitted or restricted in these areas, he said.

He said that in keeping with the Union Health and Family Welfare ministry's guidelines, the state health department has classified development blocks and urban areas based on the number of active COVID-19 cases, doubling rates and samples tested per 1 lakh population of the area.

"The state government has demarcated four development blocks- Doundilohara (Balod district), Takhatpur and Masturi (Bilaspur district) and Korba (Korba district) as red zones," he said.

Similarly, at least 80 development blocks and cities in 25 districts were marked as orange zones, he said. He said that some areas were classified as orange zones despite not reporting a single COVID-19 case so far, after it was found that the testing rate per 1 lakh population was less there.

As many as 146 development blocks in the state were categorised as green zones, he said, adding that these classifications will be reviewed every Monday.

The official said that the state government has also demarcated 44 containment zones, which include villages and areas in cities. With the detection of 40 new cases on Friday, Chhattisgarh's COVID-19 tally rose to 172, of which 110 are active cases and 62 patients have recovered from the infection.