India’s R value decreased to 0.91, but infection rates increased in many cities

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New Delhi: India’s effective reproduction number (R) for Covid – an indicator of how fast the infection is spreading – has come down from 0.93 last week to 0.91 this week, although some metro cities where major festivals are about to begin, a rising showing trend.

In Kolkata, which is gearing up for its annual Durga Puja festival, the R value has risen to 1.06 this week from 1 last week.

The R value or effective reproduction number indicates how fast the infection is spreading within the population. Essentially, it represents the average number of people who are likely to get the disease from a COVID patient and must be below 1 for the pandemic to end.

This week, both Bengaluru and Mumbai breached this limit, according to Sitabhara Sinha, a researcher at Chennai’s Institute of Mathematical Sciences, who has been tracking R since the start of the pandemic.

The R for Mumbai was 0.95 last week, which increased to 1.03 this week. Similarly, for Bengaluru, R increased from 0.99 to 1.05.

Meanwhile, Delhi also saw an increase in R from 0.92 last week to 0.95 this week. Similarly, Pune’s R increased from 0.82 last week to 0.96 this week.

Chennai is the only major city where R decreased – from 1.05 to 0.95.

Read also: India’s R value further fell to 0.89, most states saw a decline in infection rate

R value for states

Kerala’s R increased to 1.04 last week. This week it has come down to 0.85. Similarly, for Tamil Nadu, where R was over 1.02 for the last two weeks, it has come down to 0.98.

Mizoram also had an R above 1 last week, which has come down to 0.94.

Maharashtra, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh all saw a decrease in their R values. The R for Maharashtra dropped from 0.95 to 0.89 this week.

In Odisha, R stands at 0.88 as against 0.91 last week. For Andhra, the R stood at 0.92 last week, which declined to 0.85 this week.

The R values ​​in the states of Assam, Telangana and Karnataka are 0.92, 0.94 and 0.94 respectively – the same as last week.

West Bengal’s R has remained the same at 0.96 for the last three weeks.

“Things can change from good to bad very quickly and back again in small areas – because of the high degree of variability when you’re dealing with small populations – and so it’s hard to say whether we Finally watching the game,” Sinha told ThePrint.

(Edited by Paramita Ghosh)

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