Senior UK medic confident "R" contagion number below 1 across country
The R number, or effective reproduction number, measures the average number of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to
Britain's deputy chief medical officer said on Saturday he was confident the coronavirus "R" number, a measure of the rate of contagion, was below 1 across the United Kingdom.
"I am confident that our R is less than 1 overall," Jonathan Van-Tam said at the government's daily news briefing.
The R number, or effective reproduction number, measures the average number of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to.
An R number above 1 can lead very rapidly to exponential growth.