The state of Karnataka had only 1 district i.e. Bengaluru Urban with more than 15 active cases of COVID-19 when the nation went into the lockdown on the 25th of March. A month later, five other districts have joined Bengaluru Urban as red zones in the state.
The division of districts as red, orange, yellow, and green zones are based on the number of active cases in the region. If there are zero active cases, the district is bracketed into the green zone. Active cases of 1-5 will fall into the yellow zone. The orange zone will have 6-14 cases and the red zones typically have more than 15 active cases.
The recent districts to be termed as the red zones are Mysuru, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, and Kalburgi. Incidentally, all these districts were in the orange zone a week earlier. Along with this, the yellow zone districts like Kodagu, Udupi, and Davanagere are now in the green zone with zero active cases. This takes the number of green districts in Karnataka to 13 that have not reported a single case throughout. In the green zone districts, the health department officials are starting to test people with a severe acute respiratory infection and influenza-like illness. Instances like these have been rising in the places where cases have been reported.
Bengaluru faring well
The health department officials have applauded the local administration in districts like Chamarajanagara and Kodagu who have contained the region with zero active cases. A health official said,
“Chamarajanagar shares border with Tamil Nadu and Kerala is about 90km away. The surveillance measures taken there have made sure no cases are being reported. Ditto with Kodagu, where one case was reported earlier, but with the COVID-19 patient returning from Dubai behaving very responsibly, there were no other cases there.”
The number of red zones in the state has increased to six districts as of 28th April 2020 with Mysuru reporting with 46 cases and Belagavi with 18 cases. However, the health officials feel Bengaluru is doing well than other metropolitan cities. A doctor said,
“Though Bengaluru has continued to be in the red zone, compared to other metropolitan districts, the number of cases reported and deaths are much lower here.”
Source: The Times of India
