CORNWALL’S R rate for coronvirus infections is estimated to be at 0.7, public health officals have said.
The R value represents the rate of infection of the virus and it has become a key figure for understanding the spread of coronavirus.
The Government has said that the R value needs to be below 1 as part of its tests for whether to allow further relaxation of the lockdown.
Dr Ruth Goldstien, Cornwall Council’s public health consultant, stressed that the R figure was only an estimate and was also based on data which was captured around two weeks ago.
She said: ’We are confident that in Cornwall it lies between 0.5 and 0.9.’
The aim is to bring the number as low as possible – if it rises above 1 then the number of people who could be passed the virus climbs considerably and we risk a second wave.
For example if the R number was two, then every person who has the virus would go on to infect two more people. If you have 100 people with the virus they would infect 200 people, who would go on to infect 400 people.
If the R number is lower the disease will eventually peter out as not enough new people will be infected to sustain it.
During the Government’s daily coronavirus briefing on Friday, reporters heard that the R rate for the UK as a whole as estimated to lie between 0.7 and 1.
London currently has an estimated R value of 0.4, while the highest R rate is in the North East and Yorkshire, at 0.8.
At the peak of the spread in the UK, the R number was estimated to be 3.
By Richard Whitehouse, local democracy reporter