At the Health Committee meeting today, the Health Minister Robin Swann – alongside the Chief Scientific Advisor and the Chief Medical Officer – answered questions about the departments ongoing COVID-19 response.
Whilst responding to a question, Minister Swann said the ‘R’ rate remains ‘around 1.3’.
This is the third week running that the estimated virus reproductive remains at this value.
R represents the number of individuals who, on average, will be infected by a single person with the infection. R does not have a fixed value but varies with time, and is likely to be different every day.
Whenever R is above 1, the epidemic is increasing. The R number should not be viewed in isolation and must be considered alongside other indicators. At this stage the number of positive tests per day is likely to be a more important parameter.
