India's Covid-19 R-value shoots up to 1.17 in second half of Aug: Study

The rise in the R-value comes after a steady decline in cases in the first half of August in the country, and several states had their R-value go over 1 in the last few days of August -- most notably Kerala and Maharashtra, but also Mizoram and Jammu and Kashmir.

The R-value which reflects how rapidly coronavirus pandemic is spreading, has sharply risen close to 1.2 over the last fortnight, mainly driven by cases in states like Kerala and Maharashtra, say researchers. The R-value calculated between August 24-29 stood at 1.17 as against 0.89 between August 14-17, according to researchers at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai.