COVID-19 pandemic still raging in country, R-factor rising in 8 states: Centre

There is an upward trajectory of new COVID cases in limited areas while the Delta variant of coronavirus in the country is a dominant problem, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday.  

The pandemic is still raging in the country and the r factor is a significant problem as eight states are showing a rise in it, Dr VK Paul, NITI Aayog member and head of Centre's COVID task force, said. He said, "The Delta variant [of SARS-CoV-2] is a dominant problem... the pandemic is still raging and the second wave is still persisting in our country." 

Dr VK Paul said that 44 districts have reported a high case positivity, and added that the Delta variant-driven second wave of COVID is still not over. He said that over the last four weeks, eight districts have shown an increasing trend in COVID cases. 

"Please remember that R number should be 0.6 or below. If it has gone over 1, it shows it is a significant problem and the virus wants to spread," the NITI Aayog member said. 

R factor indicates how many people are being infected by one person. The statistic is used worldwide to track and check the spread of coronavirus, and if R-factor is above one, it means that one COVID-positive person is infecting more than one person. When the R-factor it is 2, it indicated that one COVID-infected person is on average infecting two more.

The states where the R-factor is more than one are Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram, Karnataka, Puducherry and Kerala. Only Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra are showing a declining trend, while the R-factor is at 1 in states like Bengal, Nagaland, Haryana, Goa, Delhi and Jharkhand. 

Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary of the Union Health Ministry, said, "Whenever R number is above one, it means that the case trajectory is increasing and it needs to be controlled."