The Health Secretary has warned local lockdowns could be on the cards as the R-rate continues to rise in certain regions.
Earlier it was reported that the R-rate has risen to 1 in the South West, meaning our area now has the second highest rate of coronavirus transmission in the UK.
Matt Hancock said Sage believes the R is below one and said local lockdowns could be used when flare-ups are spotted, reports Devon Live.
The Health Secretary told the Downing Street briefing on Friday: “You’re right that the R is closer to one in the South West and in the North West, the advice from Sage is that R is below one in all regions.
“However, we want to increasingly have an approach in tackling local lockdowns where we spot a flare-up."
The South West is different to the North West because we have lower numbers of new cases, according to Mr Hanock.
“We’ve been doing this over the last few weeks, for instance there was a flare-up in Weston-super-Mare which we successfully got under control," he said.
Public Health England's regional breakdown estimate the North West and South West's transmission number, or R value, is around one.
PHE said latest estimates, worked out in conjunction with Cambridge University’s MRC Biostatistics Unit, show it is highly likely that R is below one in each other region of England.
The brand-new analysis shows that the North West now running above that at 1.01, the highest in the country, up from 0.73 a few weeks ago when the data was last released.
The South West is listed as exactly 1, meaning it is the second highest R value in England, although the researchers believe the number of new daily infections in the region to be 'relatively low'.
This comes as lockdown restrictions continue to be eased across England, meaning more people are returning to work, and some schools have reopened.
The South West is followed by the South East on 0.97, London on 0.95 - a huge increase from its last value of 0.4 - and the East of England on 0.94.
