COVID-19 second wave still not over yet, 8 states showing high 'R' value, warns Centre

New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday cautioned the states that the devastating second wave of the Coronavirus is not over yet and more needs to be done to contain it. The Central government stated that the reproductive number that denotes the spread of COVID-19 is more than one in eight states, including Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Reproduction or reproduction number is a measure that highlights the number of people a coronavirus positive person infects, thereby reflecting the severity of its spread. 

A number of one or below one indicates a slowly spreading virus while any number above 1 indicates a rapid spread. An official said the pandemic is far from over, and the second wave, as far as India is concerned, is still not 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, the central government official added.

The government said 44 districts across 12 states and Union Territories reported more than 10 per cent weekly COVID-19 positivity rate in the week ending August 2.

It said that 18 districts from six states, including Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, reported an increasing trend in daily new COVID-19 cases in the last four weeks. It added that in the last week, 49.85 per cent of the total coronavirus cases were reported from Kerala.

The government also said that the total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in July is more than double of that in May. 

Meanwhile, India saw a drastic decline in the daily number of COVID-19 cases and recorded 30,549 new infections, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday (August 3, 2021). The Health Ministry also informed that the country reported 422 coronavirus-related deaths and 38,887 recoveries in the last 24 hours. With this, the total number of cases has increased to 3,17,26,507, whereas, the death toll stands at 4,25,195