The Central government has raised alarm against the rising number of new COVID-19 cases in certain states and has drawn attention toward some indicators, such as a reproduction number of 1.2 and the high positivity rates.

The reproduction number indicates the number of people a COVID patient can infect. The rise is largely attributed to the states of Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram, Karnataka and Puducherry where the R-number has been rising.

The country’s R-number is now comparable to that of the US, Canada and Australia. Officials have stated that the high R-value and the rising trend in these states are causes for concern. Besides these eight states with R-value over one, nine other states, including Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra, Haryana, Goa, Jharkhand, Nagaland and Meghalaya, have an R-value of one… (ET Healthworld, August 4, 2021)