An expert from Public Health England has warned that the R number in the UK could rise to 7 if the delta variable is underestimated.
Professor Susan Hopkins told the Science and Technology Committee, “We are seeing a much larger clone of the delta variant than alpha, which was more infectious than the original coronavirus.”
Susan Hopkins added that if this variable was ignored, the R number could rise to 5 or even 7.
This means that a person infected with the coronavirus may infect about 7 people.
The R number, or the reproduction rate of a virus, is an indicator that epidemiologists use to track a virus’s ability to spread in a community.
Virus reproduction rate (R number) is the average number of people to whom an infected person transmits the virus.
The baseline value of the reproductive rate R is 1. An R value greater than 1 means that the epidemic is growing and the number of infections may increase exponentially.
As an apparent mitigating measure, Professor Hopkins said vaccination should be accelerated.
The UK Ministry of Health said the UK has the highest rate of novel coronavirus infection in Europe, with 11,107 new coronavirus infections reported in the country in the past 24 hours.
For the first time since the end of February, the daily balance exceeded 10,000. This is the largest number of infections since February 19.
According to prof. Hopkins, the true number of infections is likely to double, but hopes to prevent vaccination from increasing in hospitals.
Thursday, June 17, 2021 4:48 pm