London’s R rate falls to between 0.6 and 0.9
London’s R rate has dropped to a best estimate of 0.6 to 0.9 — the lowest in the country — suggesting infections are heading for a significant decline over the next few weeks.
The figure means infections may be falling anywhere between two and seven per cent each day. It also plunge London’s rate of reproduction of the virus to the lowest of any region in the country, with the R rate in England currently at a best estimate of 0.7 to 0.9
It comes after separate figures released this morning showed the percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus in England has fallen slightly.
Data published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said England’s infection rate has seen a marginal drop over the last week, with an estimate of just over 1m people infected.
The figure means around 1 in 55 had coronavirus in the week to 16 January — around the same as the week before.
London had the highest percentage of people testing positive of any region in the country last week, with around 2.9 per cent of the capital’s population infected with Covid. That means around of 1 in 35 are estimated to be infected currently.
The figure means London has almost four the infection rate of Yorkshire and the Humber — the least-infected region.
However, ONS data showed that the percentage of people infected with new coronavirus mutations has decreased in London, the South East and the East of England.
It comes as infection rates continue to fall across all 32 London boroughs, with some areas seeing cases drop more than a third over the past week.
Twenty-seven boroughs saw cases fall by more than a quarter in the week to 23 January, with Tower Hamlets noticing a 39.8 per cent drop.
Meanwhile, Lambeth, Islington, Enfield and Havering all recorded a fall in cases of more than a third last week.
The seven-day Covid rate was down from 1,000 new infections per 100,000 Londoners in the week to 9 January to 473 on 23 January.
London recorded a further 4,367 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours — almost half the average daily jump reported in the capital last week.
It comes after the government’s chief scientific adviser earlier this week said current restrictions appear to have been successful in driving down infection rates.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, Sir Patrick Vallance said Covid cases around the UK were beginning to level off, and in some regions decline.
“We are at a position where the lockdowns have worked. They’ve slowed this down, they reached a position where it’s reached a plateau and is beginning to decline,” he said.
“We see that in cases, we see it in hospital admissions, and we’re beginning to see in deaths,” he said, before warning that it was still “early days”.