Coronavirus infections are falling across the UK by between 2% and 4% a day, according to new government figures.

The figures, which show how quickly the number of COVID-19 infections are changing day-by-day, have been published for the first time.

It comes after the government announced it has dropped the COVID-19 alert level for the UK from four to three, suggesting transmission of the virus is no longer high or spreading at an exponential rate.

The UK’s coronavirus reproduction rate – known as the R number – remains unchanged at 0.7 to 0.9, meeting the government’s target of keeping it below 1.0.

There is a small possibility the virus could be growing in London, according to the new regional growth rates.

The growth rate in the capital is listed as being between -5% and +1%, a range which comes from uncertainty around the figures and the number of different scientific models that are used to create it.

However, members of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group (SAGE) said it is unlikely to be dangerous, with the most likely real value falling in the middle of the range, especially as the R number in the capital is 0.7 to 1.

The figure of +1% may also have come because the result of one research group’s work was rounded up in order to provide a conservative estimate of growth.

All other regional growth rates are between -0.6% and 0%.

If the growth rate is greater than zero, and therefore positive, then the disease will grow, and if the growth rate is less than zero, then the disease will shrink.

Until the figures were published on Friday, the government had only been giving details of the R value of the disease – the average number of people an infected person is likely to pass it on to.

If the R value is one, each infected person will on average pass COVID-19 on to one other.

If it is above one, it means the number of coronavirus cases will increase exponentially.

No English region has an R value above 1.0, according to the latest government figures.

In the southwest of England, the R number was between 0.8 and 1.1 last week – but it is now between 0.6 and 0.9.

Source: Read Full Article