England could go back into lockdown as ‘R’ infection rate hits 1

England could be set to go back into a lockdown as that the official estimate of the pandemic “R” number has risen this last week.

According to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) the reproduction rate across the UK now stands between 0.7 and 1, which is up from 0.5 to 0.9 last week.

The R rate measures how fast coronavirus is spreading amongst the population, and numbers above 1 means the outbreak is growing.

The calculations were conducted by six research groups which have attributes cases in care homes and hospitals.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced an easing to the lockdown in England and SAGE have said it is too soon for the increased movement of people to show in the scientific data.

However, London has seen a lower R rate and SAGE are calculating regional numbers to reflect higher transmissions in Scotland and the North of England.

Public Health England and the Cambridge MRC Biostatistics Unit have concluded through a modelling study that London could have a R number as low as 0.4.

Boris Johnson and the Health Secretary Matt Hancock have previously stated that the lockdown will be reinstated should the R number rise to or above 1.

The British government have been considering placing various regions of England into lockdown, rather than the whole country depending on the R rates.