UK "confident epidemic is shrinking" as R number reduces
From Samantha Tapfumaneyi
The UK is confident that the epidemic is shrinking as the Covid-19 reproduction number (R) is now between 0.7 and 1.0, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said Friday.
The R is the number of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to.
The growth rate in the UK is estimated to between -5% and -2% and the R number is estimated to be below 1, meaning that the number of “new infections is shrinking by between 2% to 5% every day”.
DHSC added that “it remains important that everyone continues to stay at home in order to keep the R value down, protect the NHS and help save lives”.