While India fears of third wave of COVID-19, the 'R' rate is increasing slowly and gradually which has created a cause of concern. The health ministry commenting on the rise said on Tuesday that R number is high in 8 states of India and it needs to be controlled. The R-Factor is an indicator of the effective reproductive number of a virus.
Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry, during a press conference explained whenever R number is above one, it means that the case trajectory is increasing and it needs to be controlled. "India's R number is 1.2," the secretary said.
Apart from India, US, Canada, Australia too on an average have R number of 1.2 which means one infected individual is infecting more than one person, said Lav Agrawal.
Even as many countries around the world are reeling under the third coronavirus wave, the second wave is not over in India. Agarwal said that there are 44 districts in the country where the COVID-19 case positivity rate is over 10 per cent. These districts are in Kerala, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, etc., he added.
"There were 279 districts on June 1 where over 100 cases were reported but it has come down to 57 districts now, where over 100 cases are being reported in the country," said Agarwal.
All India Institute Of Medical Sciences chief, Dr Randeep Guleria commenting on the increase in R Value stressed on the need of aggressive containment strategies in the parts of the country that are witnessing a surge in fresh Covid infections. Dr Guleria explained, "Starting from .96, and going all the way up to 1, the rise in R-Value is a cause of concern. Simply put, this means that the chances of infection spreading from a person, who has Covid, to others have gone up. The areas which are witnessing this surge should bring in restrictions and employ "test, track, and treat" strategy to break the chain of transmission."
Meanwhile, India reported 30,549 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, according to the health ministry's website as of 0800 IST. The daily count of fresh cases slipped below 40,000-mark after six days. India has recorded a total of 31.73 mln cases since the outbreak. The total death toll has risen to 425,195 with 422 fatalities reported in the past 24 hours.
