BENGALURU: With the R value crossing 1 in India, Karnataka is among the top five states that is inching towards the national average. Renowned epidemiologist Dr Giridhara Babu on Friday took to Twitter and warned states to be prepared to handle the rise in Covid cases.
Dr Babu, who is part of the state Covid Technical Advisory Committee, tweeted, “R is 1.29 for India. Not to panic, but to prepare depending on the proportion of severe illness requiring hospitalisation,” He said R is nearing 1 in Manipur (0.99), Himachal Pradesh (0.96), Karnataka (0.95), Maharashtra (0.94), Bihar (0.94), Rajasthan (0.93), Goa (0.93), Tamil Nadu (0.92) and Mizoram (0.92).
He said that states should track infections and severity by monitoring clinical symptoms, looking for clusters or atypical symptoms and increasing testing levels in the states. States and union territories that need immediate attention as their R value is above national average (1.09) are Uttar Pradesh (1.38), Delhi (1.39), Haryana (1.28), Punjab (1.13), Uttarakhand (1.04) and Chandigarh (1.05). Health and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said in Mysuru, “People should not now think that Covid is far away and we don’t have to worry. It is important to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour especially masking up and vaccinations.”
Vaccines for age group 5-12 soon
He said the state has information that the Union government is making arrangements to vaccinate even children from 5-12 years of age.
What is R value?
The R value is a way of rating coronavirus or any diseases ability to spread. R is the number of people that one infected person will pass on a virus to, on average. SARS-CoV02 would have a reproduction number of about three.
How is R value calculated?
Scientists work backwards to calculate R. Certain data such as the number of people dying, admitted to hospital or testing positive for the virus over time is used to estimate how easily the virus is spreading.
R value above 1 dangerous?
If the R value is higher than one, then the number of cases keeps increasing. But if the value is lower, the disease will eventually stop spreading, because not people are being infected to sustain the outbreak.
