Indias Covid R-Value Climbing Steadily, Kerala And Northeast At Top

Among metro cities, R-values of Pune and Delhi are inching towards one, suggests an analysis by researchers at Institute of Mathematical Sciences.

The R-factor, which indicates the speed at which COVID-19 infection is spreading in the country, is climbing steadily with Kerala and the Northeastern states occupying top spots and fuelling worries about the pandemic rearing its head again. Among the metro cities, the R-values of Pune and Delhi are inching towards one, suggests an analysis by researchers at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai. The national capital on Thursday recorded 51 fresh COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 0.08 per cent. Active cases in Delhi stand at 554. Both the daily rise in cases and active infections have remained more or less the same. When the number of active cases remains in the range of a few hundred and the R-value is near one, then an outbreak can be controlled much easier, Sitabhra Sinha of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, who is leading the team, said.