The coronavirus reproduction number, or R value, across the UK is between 0.7 to 0.9, according to the latest Government figures.
This is compared to a figure of between 0.6 and 0.9 last week.
R represents the average number of people each Covid-19 positive person goes on to infect.
When the figure is above 1, an outbreak can grow exponentially, but when it is below 1, it means the epidemic is shrinking.
An R number between 0.7 and 0.9 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between seven and nine other people.
The latest growth rate is between minus 5% to minus 2%, which means the number of new infections is shrinking by between 2% and 5% every day.
The Government estimates that 162,500 people within the community population in England had COVID-19 in the week to March 20.
