While the country is witnessing improvement in the number of Covid-19 cases across the states, the situation in Kerala seems to be particularly concerning. Kerala has the highest number of Covid-19 cases with 64,026 active cases as of now. The state also recorded the highest number of Covid-19 cases with 3047 new cases on Monday.
Kerala and Goa are the only states in the red zone
The Covid-19 positivity rate has reportedly reached 10% in the last 14 days between December 13 to December 26. This rate was 9.9 per cent between November 30 and December 13. A state is considered to be in red zone if the Covid-19 positivity rate is over 5 per cent in a 14-day period. The all India positivity rate has declined from 3 per cent between November 30 and December 13 to 2.2 per cent December 13 and December 26. The states of Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan have come out of red zones by reducing their positivity rates below 5 per cent.
Between November 8 and November 21, there were nine states in the red zone. Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Kerala. Now, all the states except Goa and Kerala have shown major improvement by coming out of the red zone. Goa’s positivity remains at 6%, though it has come down to that from 6.4 per cent. Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh have their positivity rates below 1 per cent.
Kerala is the only state with R-value over 1
Kerala is the only state with R-value above 1. R-value stands for reproduction number. It denotes the average number of people that get infected by an infected individual. Its shows how quickly the virus is spreading. If the R-value is above 1, it means the virus is spreading quickly and if it is below 1, it shows that the virus is spreading slowly. It moved up there from 0.95 last week. Kerala’s R-value has reportedly been increasing since last three weeks.
COVID-19 virus had undergone mutations in Kerala: State Health Minister
The state health minister KK Shailaja had earlier said that the coronavirus had undergone mutations in the state. She said that studies conducted on the virus in the virus have shown a change in the strain, however, whether the mutation is associated with the UK’s new strain or not is yet to be ascertained.
