A look at what these three categorisations mean —

1 Red zone The Centre has named hotspot districts as Red Zone as it needs to have focused attention in these areas reporting a large number of Covid-19 cases and high growth rate. The health ministry has classified 170 hotspot districts under the 'Red Zone'. This is further divided into two groups i.e. there are 123 hotspot districts with a large outbreak and 47 hotspot districts with clusters.



The government will try to provide door-to-door facilities in these areas.



The inclusion criteria for hotspots (Red Zone), according to the government, includes, "Highest caseload districts contributing to more than 80 per cent of cases in India or highest caseload districts contributing to more than 80 per cent of cases for each State in India or districts with doubling rate less than four days."



To name a few, Mumbai (873) in Maharashtra, South Delhi (332), Hyderabad (213) in Telangana, Jaipur (170) in Rajasthan, and Kasaragod (155) in Kerala are top five districts from where a large number of COVID-19 cases are being reported.



Hotspots (designated Red Zones) will be assumed to be undertaking effective containment activities if no case is reported in the next 14 days (designated Orange Zones)

2 Orange Zone The areas with a limited number of cases in the past and with no surge in positive cases recently would be included under the orange zone. Only restricted activities such as limited public transport and farm product harvesting are expected to be allowed in the coronavirus orange zone.



Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) engaged in manufacturing of essential items like wheat four (atta), pulse (dal) and edible oils would be allowed to function freely with strict maintenance of social distancing.



A hotspot district can be turned to Orange Zone when no cases are reported in the last 14 days.



The Delhi government has designated areas with one or two positive cases as 'Orange Zone'. In Maharashtra, around 16 districts with up to 15 cases so far have been designated as 'Orange Zone'. These districts are — Gondia, Washim, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Amravati, Akola, Hingoli, Latur, Beed, Jalna, Osmanabad, Jalgaon, Satara, Kolhapur, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri.