Delhi’s R-value stood at 2.1 this week indicating that every coronavirus positive person is infecting two other residents of the city, PTI reported citing an IIT-Madras study.

The R-value is a way of rating Covid-19 or any other disease’s ability to spread. The pandemic is considered to be contained if the R-value goes below one, according to Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine. The national R-value has been below one between coronavirus waves. It means that the pandemic was restrained at those points. However, it has not ended.

However, it was too early to declare if the rising R-value indicated the onset of another Covid-19 wave in India, said Dr Jayant Jha, assistant professor of Department of Mathematics, IIT-Madras.

“We don’t know about the immunity status and whether the people who got affected during the third wave in January are getting affected or not again,” he said,

While Delhi is witnessing a surge in Covid-19 cases, Dr Jha said that other cities such as Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, were recording lower numbers. Thus, it was difficult to ascertain a trend of coronavirus waves, Jha said.

On Friday, Delhi registered 1,042 new coronavirus cases and two deaths. The count of positive persons was the highest since February 10, when the city had recorded 1,104 cases. The number of new cases was also 7.97% higher than Thursday’s count of 965 cases.

The Delhi government on Friday also made the use of masks compulsory in public places, merely three weeks after the mandate was lifted.