Covid R rate between 0.9 and 1.1 as cases show ‘early signs’ of rising
England’s Covid R rate has risen slightly to between 0.9 to 1.1, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) has said.
The national reproduction rate, which is a way of measuring how many people each infected person will pass the virus onto, stood at 0.8-1 last week.
The latest figures mean that on average, every 10 people who have Covid-19 will pass it on to between nine and 11 other people.
It comes as new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that there are ‘early signs of a potential increase’ in the proportion of people testing positive as lockdown restrictions continue to ease.
In the week to May 15, around one in 1,110 people in private households in England had Covid-19 – up from one in 1,340 the previous week.
The ONS said data suggests there was an increase of cases in the north east, the south east, and Yorkshire and the Humber, where Public Health England (PHE) is investigating the emergence of a new variant.
However, the ONS stressed that rates across the country remained low.
Sarah Crofts, head of analytical outputs for the Covid-19 Infection Survey, added: ‘This week there is a mixed picture of infection levels across the UK.
‘Although we have seen an early indication of a potential increase in England, rates remain low and it is too soon to say if this is the start of a trend.’
Meanwhile, Downing Street said it will continue to monitor a new variant after 49 cases were identified mostly in the Yorkshire and Humber region.
Boris Johnson’s official spokesman added: ‘There have been a number of variants throughout the pandemic and there will continue to be so.’
‘We won’t hesitate to put in measures that we think are necessary to try and tackle the transmission of any variants,’ he added.
Despite concerns over a spike of cases of the B1617.2 variant first detected in India, the prime minister said today that he remains ‘confident’ over plans to scrap all social distancing restrictions next month.
The PM said: ‘I am still seeing nothing in the data that leads me to think that we’re going to have to deviate from the road map – obviously we must remain cautious but I’m seeing nothing that makes me think we have to deviate.’
Surge testing and extra vaccines are being deployed in a number of areas across the country in a bid to tackle the increasing cases of the B1617.2 double mutant strain.
There has been a 161% spike in cases of the Indian variant with 3,424 reported cases – up from 1,313 the previous week, said Public Health England (PHE).
Most of the cases are concentrated in the north west of England – in particular Bolton – and London.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.