92 districts removed, 52 new ones added to red zone list; every third Indian lives in a red zone

Government has removed 92 districts from the 170 it classified as Covid-19 hotspots, or red zones, on April 15 and added 52 new districts to the list, which now leaves 130 red zone districts in the country. These 130 districts are home to a third of the country’s population and cover a fifth of the geographical area, a Hindustan Times analysis of 2011 Census data shows. Nearly 400 million people live in these hotspots, which are spread across 22 states and Union territories, but only four states are home to more than half of them.

Restrictions are unlikely to be eased in these districts when the present nationwide lockdown ends On May 3.

The government had on April 15 listed 170 districts as Coronavirus disease hotspots, those which had large outbreaks or multiple clusters of cases. The list has now been updated, according to a letter sent by the Union health secretary Preeti Sudan to all states and Union territories. It has now classified only 130 districts out of the country’s 733 districts as red zones. This list is valid for a week after May 3, when the nationwide lockdown is scheduled to end, and will be revised later.

There are quite a few differences between the list of red zones shared on April 15 and now. Even as the total number of red zone districts has decreased by 40, seven states have seen a rise in the number. West Bengal saw the highest rise, from four to 10. Tamil Nadu saw the biggest fall in the number of such districts – out of the 22 districts earlier classified as red zones, 13 have now been removed while three new districts have been added to the list, making the new tally 12.

The 400 million people in the 130 red zones live in more than 83 million households across nearly 2,500 towns and 1,20,000 villages. These comprise a third of all towns and a fifth of all inhabited villages in the country, according to the Census data.

To be sure, this is a close approximation for present times because the population figures would have changed since the Census was last conducted, and some district boundaries have also changed since then.

Another interesting fact is that the 14 most densely populated districts in India, according to the 2011 Census, have been classified as red zones. These include eight districts of Delhi, two districts of Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chandigarh, all big urban clusters. Out of the 50 districts that have the highest population density, 25 have been classified as red zones.

Among all states and Union territories, Delhi is the only one fully classified as a red zone, other than Chandigarh which is a single district Union Territory. After Delhi, West Bengal has the highest share of districts in red zones – 10 out of the total 23 districts, or 43%. Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh follow with nearly 39% districts being red zones. In terms of absolute numbers, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of red zone districts – 19 out of 75 – followed by 14 districts in Maharashtra (out of 36 districts) and 12 districts of Tamil Nadu (out of 37 districts).

Although the red zones are spread across large geographical areas, cutting across state boundaries, more than half of the people living in these red zones are in just four states – Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. Put together, 215 million people live in red zones in these four states, which is 54% of the total 400 million people in the red zones in India.

Also, there are no red zone districts in 14 states and Union territories. These include 10 states – Goa, Himachal Pradesh and all eight states of the northeast – and four Union territories – Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Ladakh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

The new list of red zones will come handy for states as the country heads towards the end of the second phase of nationwide lockdown and to better handle evacuation of millions of migrant workers and students stranded in other states.