COVID-19: R-number higher than 1 in eight states, says Centre; Kerala, Maharashtra continue to see uptick in daily cases

The Centre on Tuesday said India's R-number is higher than one in eight states including Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

During a routine briefing on the COVID-19 situation in India, Lav Agarwal, joint secretary of the Ministry of Health said, " The week ending on 1 August, 57 districts across India have more than 100 daily new cases of COVID. Eighteen districts continue to report an increasing trend in daily new cases during the last four weeks. The districts are in Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram."

#IndiaFightsCorona

18 Districts are reporting increasing trend in Daily New #COVID19 Cases in last 4 weeks; these 18 districts account for 47.5% of the total cases

Kerala : 10
Maharashtra : 3
Manipur : 2
Arunachal Pradesh : 1
Meghalaya : 1
Mizoram : 1

- JS, @MoHFW_INDIA pic.twitter.com/zAyXI80o6m

— #IndiaFightsCorona (@COVIDNewsByMIB) August 3, 2021

According to the website of global vaccine alliance Gavi, the R (reproduction) number of a virus tells us how easily it spreads in a population. It is the average number of people who will get the virus from an infected person.

Agarwal said the pandemic is far from over, and the second wave, as far as India is concerned, is still not over. The daily new COVID-19 cases being reported across the world are still high as more than 4.7 lakh infections are being recorded every day, Agarwal added.

The government said 44 districts across 12 states and Union Territories reported more than 10 percent weekly COVID-19 positivity rate in the week ending 2 August.

It said that 18 districts from six states, including Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, reported an increasing trend in daily new COVID cases in the past four weeks.

It added that in the last week, 49.85 percent of the total coronavirus cases were reported from Kerala.

The government also said that the total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in July is more than double of that in May.

On Tuesday, India's COVID-19 tally climbed to 3,17,26,507 with 30,549 more people testing positive for the disease while the active caseload declined after six days, according to Union health ministry data.

The death toll climbed to 4,25,195 with 422 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

With inputs from PTI