By Covid infection rates decreasing
Scientists have estimated Covid infection rates have dropped below one to 0.6 in different parts of England, giving some hope that restrictions might be working.
Cambridge University suggests the rate of transmission might be slowing down in London and the South East, where the mutant variant of the virus first began spreading.
In December London and the South East were placed into tier 4, meaning they had to stay at home unless for essential travel, even before the third national lockdown in January.
The rate of infection of transmission is also called the R rate, this refers to the number of people an infected person will pass Covid on to.
London’s R rate is estimated to be between 0.61 and 0.80, while in the South East it could be between 0.64 and 0.84.
The Cambridge report, released on Thursday night, said: ‘It is now possible to estimate that the Tier 4 restriction introduced on Saturday 19th December, in combination with the school holidays and reduced movements around the Christmas period, have contributed to a downward trends.”
“The impact of the lockdown announced on 5th January cannot yet be measured, and therefore any potential effects are excluded from the discussion of these results.”
Data from the report also found the number of infections is increasing in the South West and North East and plateauing in the East Midlands and North West.
Statistics also found the East of England, West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber region had an R rate of below one
The estimated number of daily infections is said to be 60,200 however there will be a large variant in numbers between regions.
Experts have said restrictions of some sort could be needed for months, estimating them to last until Autumn or until the new vaccines provide a high level of protection across the population of the UK.
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