This Morning: Matthew Wright discusses the UK R rate

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Official figures released yesterday suggest the Covid epidemic is diminishing faster in Britain than in almost another country worldwide. For the first time since lockdown the UK’s R number is finally below one. Could this point towards the end of Britain’s third wave?

Public Health England (PHE) has confirmed the country’s R-rate has finally dropped below one falling as low as 0.8.

Britain’s Covid R-rate is shrinking at one of the fastest rates worldwide, beaten only it would seem by the Netherlands who’s R number currently stands at 0.79.

There’s a lag of around three weeks in the R-value data so we will only know if the UK has managed to maintain this fall in a few weeks.

The findings of Public Health England are backed up by a separate study from King’s College London.

Dr Claire Steves, lead scientist and Reader at King’s College London, said: “According to the latest ZOE incidence figures, the number of new daily cases in the UK has finally begun to fall, with a UK R-value around 0.9.”

This new data has given Brits a much-needed boost as it indicates the peak of the third wave may be over as cases start to dip.

What is the R number?

The R is the number is a way of indicating how infectious the virus is and how much it is spreading among the population.

The “R” is the number of people one infected person will pass on the virus to on average.

For the first time since lockdown, the UK’s R number is below one which means on average for every person that catches the virus they will go onto infect less than one other person.

If the R number is above one this means the number of infections will continue to rise.

The R rate needs to stay under one for the outbreak to decrease.

Despite the positive news the UK’s R rate has dipped, Dr Claire Steves urges Brits to be cautious.

She said: “This is the good news the UK has been waiting for but, we mustn’t get ahead of ourselves, this pandemic definitely isn’t over yet as cases remain very high.”

How does Britain’s R rate compare to the rest of the world?

R-rates remain relatively high across much of the world reinforcing the grim message the pandemic is far from over.

Germany currently has an R-rate of almost double the UK’s at 1.6.

Sweden and France follow closely behind with R values of 1.4 and 1.3 respectively.

Elsewhere in the world, the US which has seen a poor take-up in the vaccine has an R-rate of 1.4 and Australia 1.3.

While others show a more positive picture such as Spain on 1.02, almost dropping below that all-important “one”.

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