The R number and growth rate for the South West remains the same this week as cases in Cornwall start to fall.

The latest data, which was released by the Government Office for Science and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) on Friday (April 9) rates the ability to spread Covid-19 and the number of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to, on average.

The updated 'R rate' for the South West, including Cornwall, remains at 0.7 - 1.0, which is marginally lower than the latest R number range for England, of 0.8 - 1.0, which is also the same as last week.

An R-value between 0.7 and 1.0 means that, on average, every ten people infected will infect between seven and ten other people.

READ NEXT:

The Government dashboard states that for the second week running no UK estimates for R and growth rate have been agreed by SAGE.

The current growth rate in the South West is now set at -6 to 0. The size of the growth rate indicates the speed of change.

It is better than the growth rate range for England, which remains at -4% to 0% per day, and is also an improvement on last week's South West rate of 0.5% to 0%.

A growth rate of between -6% and -0% means that the number of new infections is broadly flat or shrinking by up to 6% every day, which is slightly faster than last week.

However, SAGE has warned that for the south west in particular, care should be taken when interpreting these estimates, as they are based on low numbers of cases and/or dominated by clustered outbreaks.

It states: "They should not be treated as robust enough to inform policy decisions alone."

SAGE also states: "The UK estimates of R and growth rate are averages over different epidemiological situations and should be regarded as a guide to the general trend rather than a description of the epidemic state.

"Given the increasingly localised approach to managing the epidemic, particularly between nations, UK-level estimates are less meaningful than previously and may not accurately reflect the current picture of the epidemic.

"The R value and growth rates for the four nations and NHS England regions are more robust and useful metrics than those for the whole UK."

These are the latest R and growth rate estimates by NHS England regions:

Region R Growth rate % per day

England 0.8 to 1.0 -4 to 0

East of England* 0.7 to 1.0 -6 to -1

London* 0.8 to 1.0 -5 to 0

Midlands 0.7 to 1.0 -5 to -1

North East and Yorkshire 0.8 to 1.0 -4 to 0

North West 0.8 to 1.0 -4 to 0

South East* 0.7 to 0.9 -7 to -2

South West* 0.7 to 1.0 -6 to 0

*Particular care should be taken when interpreting these estimates, as they are based on low numbers of cases and/or dominated by clustered outbreaks. They should not be treated as robust enough to inform policy decisions alone.

When the numbers of cases or deaths are at low levels and/or there is a high degree of variability in transmission across a region, then care should be taken when interpreting estimates of R and the growth rate. For example, a significant amount of variability across a region due to a local outbreak may mean that a single average value does not accurately reflect the way infections are changing throughout that region.

Estimates for R and growth rates are shown as a range, and the true values are likely to lie within this range.