The UK’s Covid-19 R rate has fallen to 0.9 to 1.1 in the last week, the latest figures have shown.
Last week’s R rate, which measures the average number of secondary infections caused by a single case, was estimated to be between 1.1 to 1.3.
Meanwhile, a second antiviral pill for Covid-19 cuts rates of hospitalisation and death by nearly 90 per cent among at-risk patients with mild to moderate infections, according to early trial results.
The drug, if taken early enough, prevents the escalation of disease to keep newly-infected people out of hospital. Manufactured by Pfizer, the at-home pill is targeted at the elderly and those with underlying health conditions that make them vulnerable to Covid.
It comes after the UK became the first country to approve Molnupiravir. The antiviral drug, which is consumed orally as a pill, will be given twice a day to people who have recently tested positive for Covid and have at least one risk factor for developing severe illness, such as obesity, being over the age of 60, diabetes or heart disease.
It comes as the World Health Organisation (WHO) warns Europe is once again at the “epicentre” of the pandemic amid soaring cases.
Blaming insufficient vaccine take-up for the rise, WHO Europe head Hans Kluge said the continent could see half a million more deaths by February.
