Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said that Kozhikode district will be classified as a hotspot, though it was not listed as a hotspot in the list announced by the Centre. The CM also said that the state would inform the Centre about its decision and ask for Kozhikode to be included in the list.
The Centre has classified hotspots as regions where there are many COVID-19 cases or where there is a steady increase in the number of people getting infected.
Kasaragod, Kannur, Ernakulam, Malappuram, Thiruvananthapuram and Pathanamthitta were the districts announced as hotpots by the Centre on Wednesday.
However, the Chief Minister said that Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, and Pathanamthitta, which do not have a high number of COVID-19 cases, will be classified as different zones.
“For including Kozhikode as a hotspot, we do not require any permission but for taking off other districts from the list, we will need to get permission. But I do not think there will be a possibility of the Centre not granting it. We are looking at the present statistics and recommending, so there is no need to not consider it,” said Pinarayi Vijayan.
According to the Centre's direction, hotspot districts are further divided into red, orange and green zones, based on the number of people under treatment for COVID-19. A red zone becomes an orange zone if it does not have a new positive case in 14 days. Further, a district classified as orange will become a green zone if it does not report new people with COVID-19. But in Kerala, the zones have been named as zone one, two, three and four, instead of colour code.
“Kasaragod district, one of the hotspots announced by the Centre, has 61 COVID-19 patients; Kannur has 45 and Malappuram has nine people under treatment for COVID-19. But Kozhikode district, which is not in the list of hotspots by Centre, also has nine active COVID-19 cases. So the state government is thinking to classify all these four districts into hotspot zone 1,” said Pinarayi Vijayan.
Pathanamthitta which has six people under treatment for COVID-19, Kollam which has five people who are infected and Ernakulam which has three coronavirus positive persons, will be classified as zone two.
Alappuzha (three), Thiruvananthapuram (two), Palakkad (two), Thrissur (one) and Wayanad (one) will be classified as zone three.
Zone four are the districts - Kottayam and Idukki - which do not have any people undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at present.
All the zones will have to follow the Centre’s present regulation till April 24. According to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in zone two and three, pockets within the districts will be analysed and classified as hotspots. Such local bodies or villages will have strict regulations like the zone 1 (hotspot districts).
The districts will also have the relaxations announced by the Centre. After April 24, the situation will be assessed and more relaxations will be announced to the specific hotspots in zone two and three.
Seven people newly infected
In his daily press meet on Thursday, the CM announced that seven more people in the state tested positive for the coronavirus. Out of this, five are returnees from foregin countries, and two are primary contacts.
Out of the seven people, four are from Kannur, two from Kozhikode and one from Kasaragod.
With this a total of 394 people have been tested positive in the state. With 27 more people being tested negative, total recoveries in the state have risen to 245.There are 147 active cases.
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