As Covid-19 Increases, India is witnessing the highest R Factor In the span of a Year. What does that mean?

Infection ‘R’ Factor on the rise and that worries the country’s government…learn more…

Tuesday, 23rd March 2021

Covid-19 cases in the country have witnessed an alarming rise. There have been 131, 750 new cases of coronavirus in the last 72 hours. A massive spike in the virus’s ‘Reproduction Rate’ or ‘R’ was underlined this Monday with the rate leaping to 1.32- the highest rate since the month of April 2020, when the number of cases was lesser than 27, 000.

The 'R' or ‘Reproduction Rate’ factor is a stat made use of globally to fathom, as well as potentially, curb the virus’s spread. The ‘R’ factor is capable of measuring the number of people that could possibly get infected by a single person who is already infected.

If the ‘R’ factor stands at 2.0, that indicates that one COVID-infected person will infect two more on average. Also, each of the two infected persons will again infect another two persons (thereby spreading the infection to about four people on an average) and the like.

In case of a pandemic-like situation the 'R' factor should ideally be below 1.0, which would indicate that the covid virus would eventually cease to spread as the virus, in that case, cannot actually infect enough number of people to allow the sustaining of the outbreak.

Also Read: Highest Ever Weekly Spike in Covid-19 Cases Seen In India.

The 'R' factor rate in India was under 1.0 for quite a few weeks commencing late November the previous year, which definitely stood out as good news as it predicted a drastic drop in the new Covid-19 cases. And the reality was that it did really drop, with the daily case numbers reducing from more than 90,000 in the month of September the previous year to about10, 000 across the span of the first two weeks of the month of February 2021.

As of this Monday morning, however, the active covid case numbers in the country has spiked to about 334,000, with 150% case spike recorded across the last 3 days, with more than 40,000 recorded in each span of 24-hours.

The rise is the outcome of the new covid cases in a couple of states, with the state of Maharashtra- the worst-hit- taking the lead in this case. By the morning of Monday, the state of Maharashtra had more than 211, 000 active covid cases, with more than 30, 000 cases traced in a span of 24-hours closing Sunday night. Mumbai, the capital of the state of Maharashtra, is the worst-hit metropolitan city in this context. The city has witnessed a similarly shocking rise, with more than 3, 000 new covid cases across the last 2 days.

Country capital Delhi has recorded a rise- on this Saturday more than 800 new covid-19 infections were recorded in a span of 24-hours and this was the first time such a spike took place this year.

The centre as well as the governments of the concerned states has opined that not following the covid regulations is the primary cause of the current spike in the number of covid cases. The governments have highlighted on the requirement to adhere to the basic regulations like donning the face masks as well as keeping social distance and also frequent hand washing.

Mutated coronavirus versions - such as the ones that have come from UK, South Africa, and Brazil - are a cause of concern too, with few of the virus strains turning out to be far more contagious than the others.

The coronavirus’s ‘R’ factor rate - which is likely to determine how speedily the new covid-19 cases could fan out in the country - is actually influenced by the factors including the rate of infectiousness of the covid virus and the density of the population. The rate of reduction of the active caseloads either through covid triggered deaths or through the recovery of the patients who were infected with the virus could also impact the ‘R’ rate. In this context, it’s also quite critical that a major part of the country’s population receives at least 1 vaccine dose, as this is likely to check the virus’s spread.

Our country is currently in its 2nd vaccination drive phase in which those who are beyond the age of 60 years and those beyond the age of 45 years but coming with certain specific illnesses can receive either one shot of Covishield vaccine shot or the Covaxin vaccine shot.

More than 4.5 crore covid vaccines have been meted out since the beginning of the drive on the 16th January, with the government targeting to vaccinate about 30 crore people in this particular vaccination phase alone.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

NDTV