UK's R rate estimated to be lowest since government stats began

The coronavirus reproduction number, or R value, across the UK is between 0.6 and 0.9, according to the latest Government figures.

Last week, it was between 0.7 and 0.9.

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 0.6 and 0.9 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between six and nine other people.

The lower end of the UK’s coronavirus R estimate is 0.6 – which is the lowest R range seen since the Government first started publishing the figures in May 2020.

The figures for R and the growth rate are provided by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

The growth rate, which estimates how quickly the number of infections is changing day by day, is between minus 6% and minus 3% for the UK as a whole.

It means that the number of new infections is shrinking by between 3% and 6% every day.

But Sage warned that prevalence of the virus “remains high” and that “it remains vital that everyone continues to stay at home in order to keep the R value down, protect the NHS and help save lives”.

The estimates are based on data available up to February 15, including hospital admissions and deaths, as well as symptomatic testing and prevalence studies.