22 TN districts among 170 hotspots across the country

The hotspots include Chennai, Tiruchy, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, Erode, Vellore, Dindigul, Tiruppur, Theni, Villipuram, Namakkal, Chengalpattu, Madurai, Thoothukudi, Karur, Virudhunagar, Kanniyakumari, Cuddalore, Tiruvallur, Tiruvarur, Salem and Nagapattinam.

The Health Ministry has identified 170 districts across the nation as COVID-19 hotspots and 207 districts as potential hotspots, officials said on Wednesday, reiterating that there has been no community transmission of the disease in the country so far.

Addressing the daily briefing, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health Lav Agarwal said that States have been asked to classify districts which have reported a higher number of cases as hotspots, the districts where cases have been reported as non-hotspots, and green zones where no cases have been reported. “Hotspots are those districts which are reporting more number of cases or where the rate of growth of cases is high,” he said. “Cabinet secretary held a video conference on Wednesday with all chief secretaries, DGPs, health secretaries, collectors, SPs, municipal commissioners and CMOs where hotspots were discussed and orientation on field level implementation of containment strategy was given. 

“Special teams have been formed which will work in containment zones and do contact tracing and house-to-house surveys. Cases of fever, cough and breathlessness will be identified in the survey and requisite action will be taken as per protocol,” Agarwal said.