New Delhi (Neeti Gopendra Bhatt):  The Union health ministry has identified 170 districts as coronavirus disease (Covid-19) hot spots and 207 districts as potential hot spots, officials said on Wednesday, reiterating that there has been no community transmission of the disease in the country so far even as the number of cases was set to cross 12,000.

The ministry’s joint secretary, Lav Agarwal, said that states have been asked to classify districts which have reported a higher number of cases as hot spots, the districts where cases have been reported as non-hot spots, and green zones where no cases have been reported.

India reported as many as 11,762 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 399 fatalities till 7pm on Wednesday, according to covid19india.org, which tracks coronavirus cases real time. The number is likely to cross 12,000 as more states update their logs.Covid-19 cases were set to top 3,000 in Maharashtra, with 117 fresh cases bringing the state tally to 2,801 on Wednesday. Mumbai, with 1,756 cases, is likely to see its numbers cross 2,000. As 41 new cases were reported in Rajasthan, the state tally crossed 1,000.Meghalaya recorded its first Covid-19-related death on Wednesday, officials said.“Hotspots are those districts which are reporting more number of cases or where the rate of growth of Covid-19 cases is high,” the health ministry’s joint secretary said, adding a detailed direction has been issued to states stating consolidated efforts are required to utilise this period of lockdown to curb the spread of the virus.

“Cabinet secretary held a video conference today [Wednesday] with all chief secretaries, director generals of police (DGPs), health secretaries, collectors, superintendents of police (SPs), municipal commissioners and chief ministers’ offices (CMOs) where hotspots were discussed and orientation on field level implementation of containment strategy was given.

“They were told about large outbreak containment strategies, cluster containment strategies. Delineation of buffer and containment zone, parameter mapping, defining of entry and exit points were also discussed in detail,” Agarwal said.The joint secretary said movement of people will not be allowed in containment zones except for those related with essential services and special teams will search for new cases and samples will be collected and tested as per sampling criteria.