Golaghat district in Upper Assam, which has reported nine Covid-19 cases so far and was declared a hotspot among five districts in the state, entered the orange zone from red zone on Thursday, since no fresh case has been reported in the past 14 days, the district administration said.

According to the guidelines released by the Union health ministry, a hotspot district can move out of the red zone if no new Covid-19 case is reported in the last 14 days and to the green (non-infected) zone if none is reported in another 14 days.

If there is no fresh case for 28 days, a hotspot district moves from the red zone to the green one.

The Centre on Wednesday released a list of 170 hotspot districts out of 720 across the country, where Covid-19 cases are on the rise.

In Assam, Nalbari, Morigaon, Goalpara, Dhubri along with Goalpara, were declared to be in the red zone for the rise in positive cases.

With a total of nine cases, Golaghat district topped the list in Assam.

However, the situation has improved following the lockdown, as no new cases have been reported during the last 14 days.

The first eight patients had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin in New Delhi and they tested positive on March 31. The ninth case was reported on April 2. Since then as many as 54 people have been shifted to hospital quarantine after contact tracing but no new case has been detected. So, according to guidelines, the district has automatically moved to the orange zone.

Golaghat deputy commissioner Bibhash Chandra Modi told The Telegraph that since there was no new positive case, the district entered the orange zone according to guidelines.

“We had the last positive case 14 days ago. So, we entered the orange zone today,” Modi said.

He also said state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was likely to visit the district soon to take stock of the situation.

“Some more people are likely to be released if they have completed the mandatory 14-day quarantine period and they test negative for Covid-19,” the official said.

Modi also said the lockdown, which was extended to May 3 on April 14, would be strictly followed in the district.

Residents have welcomed the extension of the lockdown in spite of hardships.

“We welcome the decision of the extension of the lockdown. It should be followed strictly in the greater interest of the state as well as the country,” said Sashi Gohain, a resident of Dergaon.