The reopening of England’s schools has reportedly had no effect on the national Covid R rate. The figure remains below one, according to SAGE. The Mail has the story.
England’s coronavirus R rate has not changed since last week, Number 10’s scientific advisers claimed today.
SAGE estimated the figure – the average number of people each infected person passes the virus on to – was still between 0.8 and 1.0. But the panel of top experts warned the rate may now be as high as one in every region because cases are “levelling off”.
Advisers also said the measure – which is based on three-week-old data, as opposed to the current scenario – didn’t “fully reflect” schools reopening on March 8th or the easing of restrictions this week.
But scientists tracking the outbreak through other measures say it is clear letting children back into classrooms has had very little impact on the outbreak. An array of official data yesterday revealed cases have yet to spiral out of control since Number 10 took the first step back to normality.
Britain’s daily coronavirus cases have almost halved in a week to the lowest level in almost seven months, official figures also revealed today.
Department of Health bosses posted another 3,402 positive tests. It is the fewest infections reported in a 24-hour period since September 17th (3,395), before the second wave spiralled. Officials also saw 52 more deaths, down 26% on last Friday’s figure.
Data also showed the UK dished out 435,000 top-up vaccines yesterday, the most since the roll-out kicked off in December. Another 150,000 first doses were also administered, meaning 31.3million Brits have now been jabbed.
The figures come as Boris Johnson today urged Britons not to meet up indoors or stay overnight at each others homes over the Easter weekend, as millions flocked to parks, beaches and beauty spots around the country to soak up the sun and kick off the bank holiday weekend.
In the week that children returned to school last month, only 0.06% of rapid Covid tests produced positive results. How many of these results were actually positive is another question.
The Mail’s report is worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
The ‘R’ rate is a crock of smelly stuff. Its whatever people want it to be, its unmeasurable in a diverse population.
Absolutely – part of the ‘garbage out’ of the computer game nerds who do ‘models’ that relate to nothing in the real world.
Stop using the enemy’s terms of reference. The R rate is utter, utter dog shit.
Anything that has to determined based on a guess not on a evidence-based formula is of limited use.
But when they most admit they were wrong and the R-rate shows a decrease in spread. So, open the darn county up!
The picture reminds me strongly of Bill and Ben on either side of Little Weed.
Golly, that dates me!
‘R’ stands for rot and rubbish. More smoke and mirrors to confuse the sheep. If the numbers do not reflect the amount of fear factor, revert to the ‘R’.
But of course any future easing, even the existing roadmap is dependent on passports. SAGE has been wrong again and again, their modeling based on assumptions long since proven false (like schools causing an increase in infections…every place on earth where schools opened showed this false). The models not data have created this snails pace end of lockdown.
Yesterday the Telegraph reported on the deceptive fear campaign put in place by SAGE and Boris. This must be investigated. We have been lied to and manipulated and this government must be held accountable. Intentional deception to create excess fear is criminal. Hold these people accountable!