New Delhi: A study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has revealed that a Covid-19 patient can potentially infect 406 people in 30 days if preventive measures such as quarantine, social distancing and lockdown are not properly implemented, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday.

Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health, said that by implementing such preventive measures, the spread of the infection can be contained & reduced to an average of two-and-a-half persons per patient in the same period.

Citing the ICMR study, Agarwal said that the current 'R0' or R naught for the coronavirus infection is somewhere between 1.5 and 4. The R naught is a mathematical term which measures approximately how contagious an infectious disease is. It determines the average number of persons who can catch a disease from one infected person.

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"If we take the 'R0' to be 2.5 then one positive person can infect 406 people in 30 days, if the lockdown and social distancing measures are not in place, but if social exposure is reduced by 75 per cent then that one sick person will only be able to infect only 2.5 persons," Agarwal said, highlighting the importance of exercising precaution by adopting social distancing and following the ongoing 21-day lockdown.

He said that social distancing and coronavirus lockdown are important interventions in terms of managing the COVID-19 and urged all citizens to follow them.

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There are around 4,421 people have tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19) in India till Tuesday morning according to the figures provided by the health ministry. Out of these, 114 people have died while 326 people have been cured and discharged.

(With agency inputs)