All six metros, major cities marked red on COVID-19 hotspot list

All six metro cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Bengaluru – have been marked as ‘red zone’ in the government’s list of 170 districts identified as hotspots of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the list released on Wednesday, a total of 123 districts were identified as having “large outbreaks”, which included all nine districts of Delhi. Besides, the list also featured Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Agra, Jaipur and all nine districts of Bengaluru Urban.

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A hotspot is a zone from where a large number of COVID-19 cases are reported. A place is identified as a ‘cluster’, where more than 10 cases are detected while ‘hotspots’ are the places where several clusters are detected.

The total number of cases have touched 13,201, including 444 deaths, according to a PTI tally of information given by state governments. However, the Union health ministry has placed the statistics at 12,759 cases and 420 deaths, according to its 5 pm update on Thursday (April 16).

In financial capital Mumbai, the number of confirmed cases crossed the 2,000-mark on Thursday, reaching 2,043 with 107 new patients being detected, said Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The city had crossed 1,000-mark on April 11 and the latest 1,000 cases reported in just six days. Since Wednesday, three confirmed patients have died, taking the pandemic toll in the city to 116.

As of Thursday evening, Delhi has a total of 1,578 cases including 32 deaths.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan’s Bhilwara, which was among the 123 districts having “large outbreak”, is likely to become the first to turn from red to green zone as no COVID-19 cases have been reported there for a week.

Related news: 941 COVID-19 cases, 37 deaths in last 24 hours: Health Ministry