Govt says rise in R-number in several states a matter of concern

New Delhi, Aug 04: The increasing R number (Reproduction) in several states has become a matter of concern. The Centre has put the R number at 1.2 and this number indicates how many persons a single COVID-19 patient can infect.

The Centre said that the increase is largely driven by Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Puducherry. Officials while stating that this is a cause for concern said that the R number is now on par with the US, Australia and Canada.

Further it was reported that nine states have the value at exactly one and these are Delhi, Maharashtra, Bengal, Haryana, Andhra, Goa, Jharkhand, Nagaland and Meghalaya.

"Whenever this number is at more than one, this means that the case trajectory is increasing and thus needs to be brought under control," Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry said.

Further the Centre said that the increase in the daily new cases is limited to specific districts. In the past four weeks, 18 districts were reporting a rising trend in daily new cases of which ten were in Kerala, three in Maharashtra, two in Manipur and one each from Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Meghalaya. Around 57 districts are now reporting over 100 cases daily. Kerala accounts for 40.6 per cent of the daily new cases. Kerala and Maharashtra together account for 60 per cent of the total active cases. Kerala is also the only state which has more than 1 lakh active cases.