New Delhi: The effective reproduction number or R for Covid in India — an indicator of how fast the infection is spreading — remains below 1 at 0.94 this week, the same as 17 December, when the last update was released. However, Maharashtra has shown a rise in R to over 1. For Delhi, the value of R rose further to 1.30 this week from 1.12 on 17 December.
R describes the average number of people who are expected to become infected from one Covid-positive person. The R value should be below 1 for the epidemic to come to an end.
The R value for Bengaluru has increased to 1.14 from 1.07 in the 10-day period between 27 and 17 December. Kolkata’s is also above 1, at 1.06, this week. Chennai’s R came down from 1.04 on 17 December, but it’s still hovering around 1.
R values in states
Maharashtra’s R has increased to more than 1 for the first time since 1 September. The value had been steadily increasing over the past three weeks, although it was still below 1 at the time of the last update. Now, it has hit 1.08, from 0.97 on 17 December.
West Bengal’s R has been at 0.99 for the past two weeks. Karnataka’s R is also very close to 1, at 0.98 this week — a slight increase from 0.97 on 17 December. For Telangana, R is now at 0.97.
Tamil Nadu’s R, meanwhile, decreased to 0.94 this week from 0.97.
While active cases in Mizoram have been falling, R rose to 0.93 this week from 0.91.
Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Kerala all have relatively low R values of 0.82, 0.86, and 0.87, respectively.
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