NEW DELHI: As the country continues to witness a rise in confirmed daily coronavirus infections, the average R-value for Covid-19 in India has reached a staggering 1.64 — marking a rise of nearly 78% within 40 days.
On December 2, this value for India on an average was 0.95 which rose to 1.64 on January 10. There are at least 17 states, including the most populous ones, which have an R value — the rate at which an infected person is transferring the disease to others — greater than the national average.
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The R value for Bihar is 2.08 — highest in the country. At 2.03, poll-bound Uttar Pradesh is not far behind, an analysis of this crucial parameter of pandemic status shows.
In 15 other states that include all five southern states, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and several in the north-east are also showing an R value of over 1.64, indicating that every 100 infected persons are passing it to 164 others.
The country on Tuesday reported 1,68,063 new cases including 277 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Experts, meanwhile, say that while Omicron is showing the sign of being more resistant to existing vaccines, it is also mostly leading to milder infections, as has been the pattern in other countries.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, in a letter to states on Monday, said that 5-10% of active cases needed hospitalisation in the present surge, while this figure was 20-23 % during the Delta wave.
Meanwhile, a silver lining amid the gloom has come in the form of Mumbai showing early signs of flattening of the Covid curve with about 11-12,000 new cases, said Shashank Joshi, a member of the Covid task force in Maharashtra, on Twitter.
In the national capital, where many biostatisticians have predicted that the third wave may peak by mid-January, the upward trajectory however continued. On Tuesday, the city registered 21,259 new cases.