Centre Designates 170 Districts As COVID-19 Hotspots, Orders Stricter Lockdown

The Central Government has announced that a total of 170 areas have been identified as hotspots in an ongoing fight against the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

Health Ministry spokesperson, Lav Agarwal, in the daily briefing said that “All the districts where over 15 COVID-19 cases have been reported are identified as Hotspots areas” and “besides these, there are clusters, where the cases are increasing at a fast rate, which have been identified as Hotspot areas”. These districts are being identified and the list will be communicated to the States to enforce strict protocol of COVID Pandemic, he said.

GoNews has identified at least 14 districts in the country where the number of cases is over 100 and these all are being considered Hotspots for all purposes. 

The districts which have reported over 100 cases are:

Hyderabad- Telangana

Mumbai, Thane, Pune- Maharashtra

Indore, Bhopal- MP

Chennai, Coimbatore- TN

Ahmedabad- Gujarat 

Agra- UP

Guntur- AP

South Delhi- Delhi

Jaipur- Rajasthan 

Kasargod- Kerala

The government has also released a long list of financial and agricultural activities which can be allowed by the states after 20th of April in the districts which are not prone to the spread of COVID-19. 

Large areas in the Eastern and North-Eastern parts of the country fall under these non-affected areas as seen in the map prepared by GoNews. The map also shows the districts where more than 10 cases have come to light. 

The Centre is under tremendous pressure from the states to allow activities in the rural areas where harvesting of Rabi crop has begun. Without the movement of the grains from the farms to Mandis and FCI godowns, rural areas are facing a bleak future. Moreover, blocking the movement of migrant labourers to these areas is threatening a break in the lifeline to a large population of the country.