By Tony Dawson
The crucial coronavirus ‘R’ infection reproduction number in the North West has risen to now be above 1, scientists say. When R is above 1 numbers of new disease cases start to increase again.
This means our region currently has the highest rate in the country and leads to huge fears that the virus could begin to spread more rapidly again. This is already happening in Iran, where there is now a ‘second wave’ of infection which has passed the previous peak and is still rising out of control.
The latest analysis from scientists at Public Health England and Cambridge University shows the R numb for the North West now running at 1.01, up from 0.73 a few weeks ago when the data was last released. This is considerably higher than almost anywhere else in Britain. The other region where things seem to be going backwards with COVID is the South West, where the R number is now listed as exactly 1. This is followed by the South East on 0.97 and London on 0.95 – a huge increase in the capital from the last calculated value of 0.4 .
This bad news is raising serious questions about whether the lockdown should have been eased so quickly as it has been following the Dominic Cummings Barnard Castle incident..
The government has previously said it will look at bringing in local lockdowns should the R rate increase in certain areas. However, the national “Test, Track and Trace” system is not yet properly up and running.
People in the region who have dropped their social distancing following the bad example of national figures and the two senior Liverpool Labour councillors who held Birthday Parties are being urged to think again. City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram says:
“This is a stark reminder to all of us to exercise caution and follow the guidance on social distancing, hand washing, working from home if we can and rethinking if, when and how we travel. By doing this all of us can help keep each other safe and play our part in keeping the R rate down.”
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