India’s red, green and orange zones have been designed wrong, say experts

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India’s red, green and orange zones have been designed wrong, say experts
Police officers in an empty street in JaipurBCCL
  • The 733 districts of India were divided into red, green and orange zones, depending upon the number of active coronavirus cases present in the area.
  • While green and orange zones have a relatively relaxed set of restrictions, red zones have several restrictions.
  • However, experts say that locking up entire cities as red zones may be counter productive.
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India’s strategy to tackle the coronavirus has been through a massive zoning program. The 733 districts of India were divided into red, green and orange zones, depending upon the number of active coronavirus cases present in the area.

While the government said that the zones are dynamic, experts believe the whole concept behind zoning has been done wrong.

“I feel that the red, green and orange zones idea was a good one. That was a very good idea of identifying the outbreaks and sealing off some of those areas. But I feel declaring the whole of Bengaluru as a red zone is a bit flimsy, there should be subzones. The government here is already considering a ward wise sub-zoning,” said Biocon founder and CEO Kiran Mazumdar Shaw in a recent interview with Business Insider.


Ramanan Laxminarayan, Director, Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) agrees with Shaw. “Today, I don’t even think that’s so good because what it basically means is if you test more, you are more likely to have red zones. So, the places that are not testing are not red zones yet.


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While green and orange zones have a relatively relaxed set of restrictions, red zones have several restrictions. In a red zone, e-commerce players can’t deliver non-essentials, cycles, auto rickshaws and cabs can’t ply on the roads, while offices can stay open with a minimal staff.

But within red zones, containment areas are completely holed up – entry and exit are restricted, with specific timings for groceries and essentials. Amazon recently partnered with Brihanmumbai municipal corporation in Mumbai to deliver to containment zones, but with volunteers who will pick up items from a specific location and deliver it to homes.

Both Shaw and Ramanan also advised that the government should shift focus away from ‘infection rate’ to ‘mortality rate’. Essentially, try to trace people who are more likely to succumb to the infection, and test them for COVID-19 infection. This way the number of deaths can be contained.

Laxminarayan’s rationale is that in a country like India with a large proportion of young people, a high infection rate is less likely to translate to high death rate. “I actually think that every urban area is at risk. This is not worth doing any longer, let us now focus on getting back to work and saving lives of the above 50s. We have done what we can on prevention, the virus has spread slowly but now is the time to focus on medication,” he said.

Creating smaller zones will allow opening up of a bigger portion of the economy

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Several industries in the top cities in India being designated as red zones means a large part of their market has been affected. But leaders across industries like Naveen Jindal, Sachin Bansal, have been calling for the opening up of the economy.

“This business of shutting down operations won’t work anymore. If someone tests positive, get them to quarantine, do a quick sanitization and get back to work,” said Shaw.

Flipkart founder, and now CEO of fintech firm Navi Technologies, Sachin Bansal took to Twitter to say that people who want to work should be allowed to. “We can't lock ourselves up for 2 years in homes waiting for a vaccine. India can't make use of the opportunities if our most productive people are locked in their homes. With COVID's growth slowing down it's time to open up the economy. We have to learn to live with the virus,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, the chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Limited, Naveen Jindal, in an article wrote, “We could surely get India to resume its manufacturing activities, under strict supervision, with a hygiene and health protocol in place. We could, thus, make up for the lost momentum.”

SEE ALSO:
Don’t hold your breath ⁠— Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar Shaw says India's Covid-19 vaccine will enter clinical trials in 9 months
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