New Delhi: India’s effective reproduction number (R) for Covid – an indicator of how fast the infection is spreading – has reduced to 0.55, the lowest ever recorded in the course of this pandemic. Earlier this month, ThePrint had reported that the country’s R value had fallen to 0.68, then the lowest ever – indicating that the Omicron wave in the country had subsided.
R is an indicator of how many people on average are catching the disease from one infected person. R should be contained below 1 for the pandemic to come to an end.
In all states and Union territories, where active Covid cases are over 1,000 cases, R is below 1.
Sitabhra Sinha, a researcher at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences who has been tracking R values since the beginning of the pandemic, noted there were some places where R has increased, indicating that the rate of decrease of active cases have slowed.
States’ report
Uttarakhand has in the past few days, however, seen a spike in its Covid numbers – with R increasing from 0.62 around February 9 to 0.71 on Monday. West Bengal currently has the lowest reported R of 0.36 among states with over 1,000 active Covid cases. On February 9, the value was 0.78.
Tamil Nadu and Karnataka both have R at 0.49. While Karnataka had the same R value around February 9, TN’s R was 0.58.
Maharashtra, 0.58 R on February 9, is now 0.59. Kerala’ R is at 0.54, reduced from 0.76 around February 9.
Assam has the highest R of 0.85 among states with active cases over 1,000 – an increase from 0.52 recorded around February 9. This is followed by Mizoram with R at 0.77. However, this is a reduction from 0.88 recorded around February 9.
Major cities
Delhi’s R has also increased, from 0.53 at the beginning of February to 0.73 on Monday. Meanwhile, Mumbai’s R is even higher at 0.88 – an increase from 0.72 in early Februrary. Pune’s R increased to 0.66, compared to 0.61 around February 9.
Chennai’s and Kolkata’s R values are at 0.55 and 0.32 respectively, while that of Bengaluru is at 0.64.
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