India’s R value increases to 0.95 this week, Delhi continues with high infection rate of 1.14

While all top states have an R below 1, many registered an increase in the value. Maharashtra, which has the highest number of active cases, saw its R drops to 0.84 from 0.90 last week.

File photo of a health worker conducting rapid antigen tests in Delhi | Representational image | PTI

New Delhi: India’s Covid-19 R value — a key parameter to measure the rate of the spread of an infection — has increased to 0.95 this week after being steady at 0.88 for the last two weeks.

R value represents the number of people one patient can infect. A number below 1 means the number of active cases is declining.

“Most of the top states in terms of active case numbers have continued to keep R values lower than 1, including Kerala and West Bengal,” Sitabhra Sinha, researcher at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai, told ThePrint.

“However, Delhi continues to have a high R of 1.14,” he added.

The number of cases in Delhi has doubled in the span of a month, as the city struggles with the third wave of Covid-19 cases.

States with R above 1

Apart from Delhi, Telangana’s R value also suddenly shot up to greater than 1 after a long time, Sinha said.

In last few days, the R value in Telangana rose to 1.14 from 0.94 last week. Since the end of September, the value of R in the state had remained under 1.

Haryana and Rajasthan also have R above 1, but their active case count is still relatively low.

For Haryana, the value increased to 1.18 this week from 1.16 last week. Meanwhile, Rajasthan saw its R decrease to 1.04 from last week’s 1.12.

States with increase in R

While all other top states have R values under 1, a number of them saw an increase in the value.

Kerala, which is the state with the second-highest number of active cases, saw an increase in R value to 0.92 this week from 0.90.

Karnataka, which maintained an R below 1 since 13 October and brought the state’s active cases down, saw its number go up to 0.66 this week from 0.55 last week.

Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu — which feature in the list of states with the most active cases — have also seen a rise in their respective R values.

For UP, the value went up to 0.99 from 0.89 last week. Andhra Pradesh registered an upward trend that settled at 0.96 from 0.80 last week.

Tamil Nadu’s R value rose to 0.98 from 0.73 last week. Similarly, Odisha’s R value went up to 0.94 from 0.90.

States with decline in R

Maharashtra, the state with the highest number of active cases, saw its R value drop to 0.84 from 0.90.

West Bengal has also managed to reduce its R to 0.93, despite fears that Durga Puja festivities could cause fresh outbreaks in the state.

Chhattisgarh’s R value declined to 0.84 this week. It was 0.97 last week.

Major metros

“Among the major metros, Kolkata has a R value substantially greater than 1,” Sinha told ThePrint. The city’s R value is 1.08, an increase from 1.02 last week.

Mumbai’s R value also increased to about 1 this week from 0.91 last week. Bengaluru recorded a value slightly above 1, which increased from 0.38 last week.

Chennai’s R value increased to 0.92 this week from 0.82 last week.

However, Pune’s R value went down to 0.52 from 1.06.