Virus circulating in state significantly contagious: Expert

Lucknow: Informing that the Covid-19 virus in circulation appeared to be much more contagious than the one operating last year, head of pulmonary medicine department and brand ambassador for Covid-19 vaccination National Health Mission, UP, Prof Suryakant, urged people to take the prevention protocol with utmost seriousness.

Citing an assessment of data, he said: “The r-value of Covid-19 virus for Uttar Pradesh is over 2.1 which suggests that the infection is spreading fast. The national r-value is 1.32.”

It may be noted that r-value or reproduction-value denotes a way of rating coronavirus or any disease’s ability to spread. Experts world over believe that R is the number of people that one infected person will pass on a virus to, on average. Measles has an R number of 15 in populations without immunity.

“An R-value above 1, even by a fraction, means the infection can snowball. If it’s below one, the outbreak may eventually subside,” Prof Surya Kant said citing the study.

He said that the strategy to weaken the chain of spread rested on two pillars -- adherence to prevention protocol and vaccination. “Now many think that the two ways work individually but they actually function like two sides of the same coin. Also, one strengthens the other,” he said.