The government's official R number for the south west has risen in the latest figures published this lunchtime.

Newly updated data on the government website today states that the current rate of reproduction, known as the R number, in the south west is now at between 0.8 and 1.1.

It means that for every one person with the infection a further 0.8 to 1.1 people are likely to go on to be infected.

It is on par with the south east and roughly average for much of the rest of the UK.

However, the latest data comes with a warning that SAGE (the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) believes the current R number for England could be higher than what is shown, due to the time delay between someone being infected and them need healthcare.

It said: "These estimates represent the transmission of Covid-19 from several weeks ago due to a time delay between someone being infected and needing healthcare.

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"Estimates that use more timely data reflecting infections suggest a higher R for England than shown here.

"As a result, SAGE does not have confidence that R is currently below 1 in England."

Last Friday the R number for the south west was put at between 0.7 and 1.0 average number of secondary infections caused by one person infected.

In the latest modelling by the MRC Biostatistics Unit at Cambridge University, published on July 29, the south west region was putting at having an average median R number of 1.04, with 0.77 at the lowest end and 1.38 at the highest.

This put the south west as the region with the highest rate in the country again in their figures.

The Cambridge model is only one of the models that feeds into the official regional R rate estimate by SAGE though.

And government advisers have always stressed that regional R numbers should be viewed with caution, because as the number of infections falls the values become less reliable.

It comes as the coronavirus rate in Cornwall more than doubles over seven days, although the number of physical cases remains low.