C'garh govt declares 95 areas as containment zones

Raipur, May 26 () Following a spurt in COVID-19 cases in Chhattisgarh, the Health department on Tuesday declared 95 areas, from where these cases were recently detected, as containment zones, officials said.

Last week, the number of containment zones stood at 44.

Similarly, the health department has classified 13 development blocks and urban areas of the state as red zones and 39 as orange zones to contain the spread of coronavirus, they said.

State Health Secretary Niharika Barik Singh has issued a notification regarding the classification of COVID-19 zones, a health official here said.

The classification of development blocks and urban areas into zones has been done based on the number of active COVID-19 cases, doubling rates and samples tested per 1 lakh population of the area, he said.

"The state government has demarcated 13 development blocks and cities - Doundilohara (Balod district), Kota, Bilaspur city, Bilha, Takhatpur and Masturi (Bilaspur district), Raigarh city (Raigarh district), Chhuriya (Rajnandgaon district), Mungeli (Mungeli), Ambikapur (Ambikapur district), Pandariya (Kabirdham), Balodabazar (Balodabazar district) and Korba (Korba district) as red zones," he said.

Similarly, at least 39 development blocks and cities in 18 districts were marked as orange zones, he said.

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, he said.

These classifications will be reviewed every Monday, he said.

With the detection of 68 new cases on Tuesday, Chhattisgarh's COVID-19 tally rose to 361, of which 282 are active cases and 79 patients have recovered from the infection, he said. TKP NSK NSK