COVID surge: Every positive patient in country is infecting 4 others

The number of COVID-19 cases in the country went up by 1,59,632 including 3,623 Omicron cases.

India’s R-value this week stands at 4. Just for comparison, the value during the second wave in April-May last year was 1.69. R-value 4 means one infected person can transmit the virus to four others.

Dr Jayant Jha, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, IIT Madras, told PTI that R-value depends on transmissibility probability, contact rate and the expected time interval in which infection can happen.

“Now, with the increase in quarantine measures or restrictions, maybe the contact rate will go down and then, in that case, R0 can decrease. So, based on our preliminary analysis, which is just based on the last two weeks, we can tell these numbers, but again, these numbers can change based on how much affirmative action is taken with respect to social gathering and all,” Dr Jha said.

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The daily positivity rate stands at 10.21 per cent. With rapid rise in cases, the recovery rate came down to 96.98 per cent. The total number of cases as on January 9 stands at 3,55,28,004 crore with active cases comprising 1.66 per cent of the total infections, stated the Union health ministry. The number of active cases stands at 1,18,442.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) declared that the Omicron variant is the predominant circulating strain in India now. India’s Omicron count stands at 3,623 with 616 cases added till 8am on January 9. Of them, 1,409 have recovered or migrated. Maharashtra has the most number of Omicron cases (1,009), followed by Delhi (513).

Maharashtra reported 41,434 new cases on Saturday with 20,318 cases in Mumbai alone. Thirteen people died, five of them in the state capital.

Closely following the financial capital, national capital Delhi too recorded 20,181 new COVID cases and seven deaths. Delhi’s positivity rate has gone up to 19.60 per cent.

The cumulative doses of COVID-19 vaccine stands at 151.58 crore. Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the response to vaccination drive for the 15-18 age group with over two crore jabs being administered to this category within a week of the launch.