A scientist has said the R value in Liverpool is "well below one at this moment in time."
Professor Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said the R value had decreased in the city.
He said there is a "problem" in Liverpool but that cases in the city have halved and hospital admissions have "stabilised".
Local experts including city Public Health Director Matt Ashton have welcomed recent falls but urged caution, stressing it will take time for the rate to fall to a safe level.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, Prof Heneghan said: "You've got these pockets around the country where trusts like Liverpool have got into trouble with over half the patients being Covid patients.
"But let's look at the data, the data in Liverpool is showing cases have come down by about half, admissions have now stabilised, so, yes, there is a problem in Liverpool.
"But, actually, the tier restrictions... the people in Liverpool have dropped cases from about 490 a day down to 260 a day - a significant drop
"The R value is well below one in Liverpool at this moment in time."
The news comes as it was announced that everyone living or working in Liverpool will be offered regular covid-19 tests in the first whole city programme in the country - with rapid turnaround tests available across the city from Friday.
Two thousand military personnel will arrive in the city later this week to roll-out a huge programme of hundreds of thousands of tests as Liverpool becomes the centre of the government's new strategy to fight the virus.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has talked of rapid mass testing as offering a "moonshot" solution which could help bring the UK out of the coronavirus crisis - and the key plan will begin in Liverpool this week.
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Local leaders have been working with government and put the city forward for the crucial pilot programme in the hope it will drive down infection levels and potentially mean an easing of restrictions before Christmas.
Liverpool residents and workers will be tested using a combination of existing swab tests, as well as new lateral flow tests, which can rapidly turn around results within an hour without the need to be processed in a lab, as well as ‘LAMP’ technology due to be deployed in Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for NHS staff.
