Why India's second Covid wave is 'far from over'

NEW DELHI: The Union health ministry on Tuesday said that second Covid wave in India is "far from over" with as many as eight states witnessing a reproductive number of more than one.Reproduction number is a measure that highlights the number of people a coronavirus positive person infects, thereby reflecting the severity of the spread.A number of one or below one indicates a slowly spreading virus while any number above 1 indicates a rapid spread. According to the Union health ministry, states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka all have a high R valueThe situation is particularly worrying in Kerala, which has been adding over 20,000 new infections to its caseload over the last one week. Moreover, out of the 44 districts that have been reporting a high test positivity rate, 10 are in Kerala. "There are 44 districts where the case positivity rate is over 10%. These districts are in Kerala, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland," the ministry said during a press briefing in Delhi.It added that in the last week, 49.85 per cent of the total coronavirus cases were reported from Kerala. 'Pandemic far from 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."A high number of Covid cases are being reported across the world and the pandemic is far from over. As far as India is concerned, the second wave is still not over," said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, Union health ministry. Speaking about the situation in India, Agarwal said that in the last 4 weeks, 18 districts from 6 states, including Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur have been reporting increasing trend in daily new Covid cases.Last week, fresh Covid-19 cases in India had registered a week-on-week rise for the first time in 12 weeks since the peak of the second wave in early May. India had recorded just over 2.86 lakh new cases last week ended Sunday (July 26-August 1), a 7.5% rise from the previous week's tally of 2.66 lakh. Weekly cases in the country registered a rise for the first time since May 3-9, when the second wave peaked. The fall in cases had continued till last week, even though the decline had slowed to 1.4%.(With inputs from agencies)

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