Dhaka: The national committee for tackling the coronavirus outbreak has spotted dozens of areas as red zones due to high infection and death rates.

They include 45 areas in Dhaka, 11 in Charttogram and several Upazilas in Narayanganj, Gazipur, and Narsingdi.

The committee is marking an area that has recorded minimum 60 COVID-19 cases among 100,000 people in last 14 days as a red zone in Dhaka and Chattogram cities.

The ratio for red zone outside the two main cities is 10 cases to 100,000 people.

The administrators, superintendents of police and civil surgeons of the districts will pinpoint the red zones now, the committee decided on Saturday.

The authorities are yet to decide on the time to impose lockdowns on the areas.

The timing will depend on preparations of the authorities related to enforcing lockdowns, Health Minister Zahid Malik told bdnews24.com on Sunday.

“It can happen tomorrow if the relevant agencies are ready. But the preparations are not complete in Dhaka,” he said.

Brig Gen Mominur Rahman Mamun, the chief health officer of Dhaka North City Corporation, told bdnews24.com they got the list of the red zones, but needed to work more on it.

“It’s a draft list, not final. We are studying it. The red zones will have to be much more specified,” he said.

The government ended the coronavirus shutdown of offices and the public transportation system on May 31 after over two months amid a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths.

It has decided to categorise the areas red, green and yellow based on the rate of coronavirus infections and deaths from the disease.

The local authorities put Cox’s Bazar Municipality on lockdown declaring it a coronavirus red zone with maximum infection risk on Friday.

The Dhaka city authorities put East Rajabazar on lockdown experimentally on Jun 9.

Besides Rajabazar, the red zones in Dhaka North are Gulshan, Badda, Cantonment, Mohakhali, Tejgaon, Rampura, Aftabnagar, Mohammadpur, Kalyanpur, Moghbazar, Airport, Banasree, Uttara and Mirpur.

Dhaka South red zones are Jatrabari, Demra, Mugda, Gendaria, Dhanmondi, Jigatola, Lalbagh, Azimpur, Basabo, Shantinagar, Paltan, Kolabagan, Ramna, Sutrapur, Malibagh, Kotwali, Tikatuli, Mitford, Shahjahanpur, Motijheel, Wari, Khilgaon, Paribagh, Kadamtali, Siddheshwari, Laxmibazar, Elephant Road and Segunbagicha.

In Chattogram, the national committee marked wards No. 37 and 38 at Bandar, ward No. 39 at Patenga, ward No. 10 at Pahartali, wards No. 16, 20, 21 and 22 at Kotwali, ward No. 14 at Khulshi and ward No. 26 at Halishahar as red zones.

Araihajar, Rupganj, Sadar and the city corporation areas are red zones in Narayanganj.

Gazipur has all its Upazilas spotted as red zones.

In Narsingdi, the red zones are the areas under Sadar Model Police Station, Madhabdi and Polash.

https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2020/06/14/bangladesh-marks-dozens-of-coronavirus-red-zones-mostly-in-dhaka