With a sharp increase in number of Covid-19 cases, number of Red Zones declared by the administration in Jammu and Kashmir has also witnessed an increase, touching 45. As per officials, out of these, 26 Red Zones are located in Kashmir division while rest are in Udhampur, Rajouri, Samba and Jammu.
A senior official said the number of Red Zones, an areawhich is a cluster of positive Covid-19 cases, has seen a spurt during last fewdays. Use of technology such as Geo-tagging is helping in exact identificationof the affected areas, the official said.
“We are regularly updating the Covid-19 affected Red Zoneson our official website for public information. As of now, we have 39identified Red Zones in rural areas of J&K. Six Red Zones fall in Srinagardistrict,” said an official from Remote Sensing department, which isundertaking the Geo-tagging process of the affected areas. “Keeping in viewpatient privacy, we don’t reveal the exact location of the house of the patienton the website but mark only the wider Red Zone,” the official said.
Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Pandurang Pole, told GreaterKashmir that administration is ensuring that a strict lockdown is observed inall the Red Zones identified by the government. “We are making all efforts thatinward and outward movement of people in the Red Zones in both urban and ruralareas is completely restricted. We are hopeful that this step will help in thedrive against spread of Covid-19,” Pole said.” This also helps our civic bodiesin sanitisation of the affected areas and the health department in trackingdown the residents who may develop symptoms of Covid-19,” Pole said.
The Div Com said officials of the Forest Department are alsoplaying an important role in identifying the Red Zones through GeographicInformation System. “DFOs are assisting the Deputy Commissioners with the GIStechnology used to locate the red zones and surrounding areas. At thedivisional level, we have created a control room at Old Secretariat whereround-the-clock monitoring of the Red Zones is taking places,” Pole said.
Apart from Red Zones, areas surrounding these”hot-spots” are being identified as containment and buffer zones.Explaining the process involved in identification of these areas through GIS,Remote Sensing Department official said after receiving the data of Covid-19positive cases from Health Department, the affected areas are located fromsatellite and GIS data. “The exact location of the affected patient marked byGeo-tagging is known as center point from which 3 kilometer area is declared asa containment zone,” the official said.
He said the buffer zone in rural areas are the localitiesfalling within 7 kilometers from the center point. For urban areas, 5 kms fromthe center point or the actual location of the positive case is declared asbuffer zone, he said.
“In containment and buffer zones there are restrictions ofpeople visiting their relatives and neighbours,” the official said.
Official sources told Greater Kashmir that Government ofIndia is mulling that post April 14 when the 21-day lockdown concludes,restrictions will remain imposed in only declared buffer and containment zoneswhile normal life will be restored in rest of the unaffected areas.