Covid-19: R rate now between 0.8 and one across all of UK
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The rate at which Covid-19 is reproducing across the UK – known as the R rate – has dipped to between 0.8 and one.
That’s down from an R rate estimated range of 0.9 to one a week ago, government scientists said today, adding that the pandemic was declining at a faster rate than following the first wave of infections.
An R number between 0.8 and one means 10 people with Covid-19 will on average infect between 8 and 10 other people.
The growth rate was between minus three per cent and minus one per cent, down from between minus two per cent zero growth last week, indicating the number of new infections is shrinking between one per cent and three per cent each day.
It follows the good news yesterday that positive Covid cases dropped more than a quarter in England last week, according to the latest Test and Trace figures, as the country begins to feel the effects of the nationwide lockdown.
Figures from the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) found that just over 110,000 people in England tested positive for coronavirus in England in the week to 25 November, marking a 28 per cent slump on the previous week.