West Bengal Health Secretary writes to Centre, claims its revised list of Covid-19 red zones is 'erroneous'

In the letter to MoHFW Secretary Preeti Sudan, West Bengal health secretary wrote, "With regard to the presentation made in the Cabinet Secretary's video conference with the states on Apr 30 at 3 pm, as many of ten (10) districts of West Bengal were shown in the Red Zone which is an erroneous assessment."

"Based on the current parameters of Government of India for categorization of areas for Covid-19, the districts in the Red Zone are only four in West Bengal: Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and East Medinipur," health secretary Vivek Kumar wrote.

With the letter, Vivek Kumar has also enclosed a classification of districts/areas in West Bengal in the Red, Orange and Green zones.

"You are requested to kindly bring this to the attention of the officials concerned," Kumar wrote in the letter to MoHFW secretary.

Earlier, the MoHFW released a revised list of Covid-19 zones across the country, mentioning ten (10) West Bengal districts, including Kolkata, Howrah, North and South 24 Parganas, East and West Medinipur, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong and Malda, are in the Red Zone.

The Centre data also showed West Bengal's five districts, including Hooghly, Nadia, East and West Burdwan, and Murshidabad, are in Orange zone and remaining eight districts of the state are in Green zone.

Meanwhile, a data provided by West Bengal government claimed four districts were in Red zone, 11 were in Orange zone and remaining eight districts were in Green zone.