NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday said that Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka and Gujarat are emerging as states and UTs of concern on the basis of weekly Covid-19 cases and positivity rate.
It said that eight districts are reporting over 10 per cent weekly positivity, while 14 districts are reporting between 5-10 per cent positivity.
India's R naught value, which indicates the spread of Covid-19, is 1.22 so cases are increasing, not shrinking, the government said.
The country has reported more than 10,000 daily new Covid-19 cases after 33 days, it said stressing that there is a need for a heightened vigil in view of a sharp increase in infections.
As coronavirus cases spiral, the 'R-value' has crossed two in Delhi and Mumbai, researchers said on Thursday.
Chennai, Pune, Bengaluru and Kolkata have R-value (or reproduction number) of over 1, as per the data study by the researchers of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai.
Sitabhra Sinha, who led the study, said the R-value of Delhi stood at 2.54 between December 23-29, while for Mumbai it was 2.01 between December 23-28. Both these cities have seen an exponential rise in cases. Pune and Bengaluru recorded R-value of 1.11.
"The R-value of Kolkata and Chennai was 1.13 and 1.26, respectively. Since mid-October, the R-value of all these cities was over 1. What is new was the sudden rise. The fact that Delhi and Mumbai crossed the R-value 2 is quite surprising," Sinha told PTI.
Delhi on Wednesday reported a massive jump in daily Covid-19 infections with 923 fresh cases, the highest since May 30 and 86 per cent up from a day earlier. The positivity rate in Delhi crossed 1 per cent after six months to reach 1.29 per cent.
On December 20, 91 new Covid-19 cases had been recorded in the national capital, but the figure climbed to 923 on Wednesday. The Covid-19 positivity rate in Delhi thus jumped to 1.29 per cent from 0.19 per cent between December 23 and December 29.
Similarly, Mumbai on Wednesday reported 2,510 Covid-19 cases, the highest daily addition since May 8, 2021, besides one death.
On December 20, only 283 cases had been reported in Mumbai, whereas on Tuesday the financial capital of the country recorded 1,377 cases, and on Wednesday the figure went up by 80 per cent.
Evidence shows that Omicron variant has a growth advantage over Delta with a doubling time of 2-3 days, the government said quoting the WHO. It said the durability of immunity post-Covid-19 infection persists for about nine months.
The government said 90 per cent of India's adult population has been administered the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 63.5 per cent of people are now fully vaccinated.
The precautionary dose of the vaccine is primarily to mitigate the severity of infection, hospitalisation and death, it said. The government said that masking before and after vaccination is a must.
It said that earlier and currently circulating strains of coronavirus spread through the same routes and added that treatment guidelines for the infection remain the same. It said that the whole virus infects an individual in natural settings and added that it elicits cell-mediated immunity and immunological memory.
The government said that within one month 3,30,379 cases of Omicron variant and 59 deaths were reported across 121 countries.