Centre declares Goa a green zone

NT NETWORK

Panaji

Even as the nation is fighting its battle to defeat COVID-19, the Centre on Friday declared Goa as a green zone along with Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram.

The Union Health Ministry has listed 130 districts in the country in red zone, 284 in orange zone and 319 in green zone on the basis of incidence of cases of COVID-19, doubling rate, extent of testing and surveillance feedback.

The Union Health Ministry designated both the districts of Goa as ‘green zones’, as there is no new confirmed case of COVID-19 detected since the last 21 days in both, North and South Goa districts. 

According to Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan, a district is considered under the green zone if there are no active cases of COVID-19 so far or there is no reported case in the district since the last 21 days instead of the 28 days mandated earlier.

The last COVID-19 positive case was detected in South Goa on March 25, while in North Goa the last positive case was detected on April 3.

Till date, Goa has seen seven confirmed cases of the dreaded virus and all the patients have recovered from the disease.

Hours after the central government issued the state-wise division of COVID-19 zones, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant took to Twitter wherein he said that “the war against COVID-19 is far from over”.

“With the efforts of our #CoronaWarriors and support of the people of Goa, our state has now been classified as a green zone by the Govt of India. The war against #COVID19 is far from over,” Sawant posted on his official Twitter handle account.

The Chief Minister said Goa must continue to fight against the dreaded virus by adopting a modified lifestyle, which gives priority to safe health norms such as sanitisation, wearing of face covers, social distancing and staying at home during the ongoing lockdown period.