Sutra Model

The end of 2019 brought the Covid-19 pandemic to the world. This pandemic is the most impactful event globally that brings challenges to the social and economic life of the ordinary people of the world in the twenty-first century. The Indian Government came up with a model to track the rising number of COVID cases and their impact on the country.

SUTRA Model Full Form

The SUTRA model stands for Susceptible, Undetected, Tested (positive), and Removed Approach) model. It aims to analyse and track the trajectory of the pandemic in India.

The news discussed the SUTRA model as it predicted that the country's second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is unlikely.

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Features of the SUTRA Model

The Indian Government made a national COVID-19 Supermodel Committee make and predicted the trajectory of COVID-19. This committee comprised scientists from IIT Kanpur and Hyderabad.

The three main parameters on which the SUTRA model worked are:

• Beta: Beta is also known as the rate of contact. It measures and analyses the number of infected people per day in the country. This parameter is related to the R0 value. R0 value refers to the number of people infected by a person already infected by the virus.
• Reach: This parameter measures the level of exposure of the country's population to the ongoing pandemic.
• Epsilon: This parameter refers to the ratio of detected and undetected COVID-19 cases

Challenges of the SUTRA model

One of the significant challenges of the SUTRA model was the instantly changing mutants of the COVID-19 virus.

Here is a comprehensive list of Coronavirus variants:

• Omicron – Omicron is one of the prominent variants of Corona. Omicron is also divided into two sub-variants:
• 1) Omicron B1
• 2) Omicron B2.
• These variants of Coronavirus predominantly spread in the US and South Africa. The sub-variant B2 is less severe than B1 or the Delta variant.
• Delta: Delta (B.1.617.2) was first traced in India in late 2020. But soon, it spread all over the world. It is esteemed that Delta is more (at least 80-90%) transmutable than the Alpha variant.
• Beta: This variant of Coronavirus was first noticed in South Africa in 2020. But soon, it spread across the globe rapidly, although it did not affect the people of the US much. The beta variant also has a couple of subvariants.
• Alpha: Alpha variant is the first and most severe variant of Coronavirus. The netizens of Great Britain first witnessed it in November 2020. This variant also spread rapidly and was considered a concern for human life. It has become a severe variant in the US. Still, some variants of Delta are considered more aggressive than the Alpha variant of Coronavirus.

The nature and DNA of the virus were changing rapidly. Therefore, this made the prediction a challenging task. The SUTRA model and the outcomes were only helpful if the virus did not change its mutants.

SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID. Due to its vast and rapid spread throughout the world, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it a pandemic.

The pandemic introduced a worldwide lockdown that made restricted people's movements and led to losses. The governments took many more initiatives to predict and control the impact of the pandemic, and one such initiative was the SUTRA model.

FAQs on the SUTRA model

Q.1. What does SUTRA stand for in the SUTRA model?

The SUTRA model stands for Susceptible, Undetected, Tested (positive), and Removed Approach.

Q.2. What was the aim of the SUTRA model?

The SUTRA model aimed to analyse and track the trajectory of the pandemic in India.

Q.3. What was the major challenge faced by the SUTRA model?

The nature and DNA of the virus were changing rapidly. Therefore, this made the prediction a challenging task. The SUTRA model and the outcomes were only helpful if the virus did not change its mutants.

Q.4. What are the three main parameters of the SUTRA model?

The three main parameters of the SUTRA model are as follows:

• Beta: Beta is also known as the rate of contact. It measures and analyses the number of infected people per day in the country. This parameter is related to the R0 value. R0 value refers to the number of people infected by a person already infected by the virus.
• Reach: This parameter measures the level of exposure of the country's population to the ongoing pandemic.
• Epsilon: This parameter refers to the ratio of detected and undetected COVID 19 cases

Q.5. Who comprised the committee of the SUTRA model?

The committee of the SUTRA model comprised scientists from IIT Kanpur and Hyderabad.