File Image
One coronavirus patient not practicing social distancing or defying lockdown rules can infect about 406 people in 30 days, an official of the Health Ministry said today quoting a recent ICMR study. In medical terms, this phenomenon known as R-naught or R0, is a virus's basic reproductive number -- an epidemiologic metric used to describe the contagiousness of infectious agents.
Earlier on Monday, the Health Ministry said India was between Stage 2 and Stage 3 of the coronavirus. Stage 2 implies local transmission, which means that the infected patients with a travel history spread the virus to close friends and family. At this stage, every person who came in contact with the infected persons can be traced and isolated. Stage 3, on the other hand, is worrisome as it centers around community transmission. At this stage, a patient is infected though he had no known contact with another confirmed case of coronavirus or travelled from a country affected by the pandemic.
At a briefing of the Health Ministry this afternoon, Luv Agarwal, Joint Secretary said eight COVID-19 patients died and 354 news cases were reported in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of infected people in the country to 4,421.
ALSO READ | Health Ministry announces 3 dedicated facilities for COVID-19 patients
ALSO READ | Govt mulls requests from states, experts on extending lockdown