NEW DELHI: All six metros - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad - have been declared red zones by the Centre on Friday. The cities are likely to see no exemptions from the ministry's rules after the second phase of the lockdown ends on May 3.

The ministry has split 733 districts into red, orange and green zones based on the severity of COVID-19 infections in each of these areas. There are 130 red zones which will be under strict restrictions after the lockdown extension ends on May 3. In the orange zones (284), there will be partial easing, while in the green zones (319), there will be liberal easing.

Kurnool, Guntur, Chittoor, Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore districts have been marked as red zones in Andhra Pradesh. In Telangana, the districts marked red zones are: Hyderabad, Suryapet, Ranga Reddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri, Vikarabad, Warangal Urban.

Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of red zones at 19 followed by Maharashtra (14), Tamil Nadu (12) and Delhi (11).

A notification from Health Secretary Preeti Sudan said, “This classification is multi-factorial and takes into consideration incidence of cases, doubling rate, extent of testing and surveillance feedback to classify the districts."

“A district will be considered under Green Zone, if there are no confirmed cases so far or there is no reported case since last 21 days in the district,” the notification read.

The ministry added that the list will be revised every week or earlier and said that the states will be informed.

The number of COVID-19 cases in India rose to 35,043 on Friday morning and the toll stood at 1,147, according to the Union Health Ministry's update at 8 am.

Also Read: COVID-19 India Updates May 1: 35,043 Cases, 1,147 Reported Deaths