conversations in noida like any other part of the world have become coloured by covid19 of late they have become intensely colourcodedfriends talking over the phoneare you in redtill yesterday now im orange but i still cant step outbut orange is better than red i thoughti thought so too but all of noida is red in the up hotspot map have you seen ithey talking of hostspots the list our rwa sent also has green zones in hotspots if its green doesnt it mean its not a hotspotthe answer to what the status of the lockdown or sealing in your area of residence is lies ensnared in a maze of overlapping colour codes that differently define whats red whats orange and whats green never mind the large grey area in your mind grey is another code on the state map to categorise certain areas that have seen covid19 casesso to understand what kind of restrictions apply to your area of residence you not only need to crack three different sets of colour codes you also need to recognise their hierarchy and the terms associated with themat the top is the central classification of red orange and green zones which was released by the ministry of health and family welfare on friday then there is the state classification based on which strategies to contain the pandemic have been drawn up the third is noidas own subset of red orange and green which it has been using to define hotspots and areas of sealingnow all three sets of colour codes are uniform in signifying the extent of regulations red is the most severe orange or amber is a lighter version of it and green is normalcy however you may be in a green zone going by noidas hyperlocal definition of hotspots but still very far from normalcy as all of noida is a red zone in the state and central classificationsso if youre green you have permission to step out of your housing society if you read the noida colour code but you should practise social distancing and step right back in if you read the state or central colour code because all of noida is red noida also uses a different definition of hotspots which form the basis of all colour codes in noida any area with one covid19 case is a hotspot in other parts of up including ghaziabad a single case is defined as an epicentre and two or more epicentres would make a hotspotwe now know which zones we are in and how we are shifted after every 14 days from red to orange to green as per noidas definition however residents are confused about what will change for them from red to orange will there be any relaxation in restrictions and what does it mean to be green it would be good if we could get some clarity on the colour coding reference from peoples point of view residents in many societies have this confusion said rajiva