The Delhi government has classified areas hit by Covid-19 outbreaks as red and orange zones, and will begin a sanitisation drive there on Monday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said. The worst-hit areas, which will be treated as “containment zones”, are in the red category, while the ones with high risk are labelled orange.

Meanwhile, the government expanded the list of containment zones in Delhi further to include a total of 43 areas. Such areas are being sealed off with residents barred from entering and exiting homes. Until Saturday, there were 33 such zones.

South East Delhi has 12 of the 43 containment zones, East Delhi has nine, Shahdara has five and West Delhi has four. South, South West and Central Delhi have three containment zones each, while New Delhi and North Delhi have two each.

The Aam Aadmi Party government calls its project to eliminate the incidence of Covid-19 in these containment areas “Operation Shield”, and claims to have been successful in Dilshad Garden locality. The area had been a “hotspot” earlier but has not reported any new case in the last 10 days, Kejriwal said.

“Operation Shield will be implemented in all areas which have been declared as containment zones,” Kejriwal said. “I know people would be facing difficulties in these areas, but it is necessary for saving their lives.”

As of Sunday evening, Delhi has 1,154 positive cases of Covid-19, of which 24 have died. Maharashtra is the only state that has more patients of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Kejriwal said that for sanitisation, 10 technologically-advanced machines from Japan along with 50 Delhi Jal Board machines will be used as part of the Operation Shield.

The chief minister said auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers and those who operate the “gramin sewa”, a local public transport service, can apply for the Delhi government’s Rs 5,000 aid from Monday through the transport department’s website.