STURGEON WORRY OVER NUMBER
NICOLA Sturgeon has said the coronavirus “R” number has risen. The calculation is the average number of people who the Government estimate would be infected by one other infectiouss person. Ministers have previously stressed they would like the number to be below one, as it indicates the virus is not being widely spread.
But Sturgeon said at her briefing: “We think that the R number in Scotland increased last week and it is probably now above one, perhaps as high as 1.4.” The First Minister said that despite the increase, the “overall prevalence” of coronavirus remained low in Scotland.
But she added: “Nevertheless, this is a further reminder that the virus is spreading again here. It is a reminder of the need for us to take this seriously and do all of the right things.” An R number of one means that, on average, every person who is infected will infect one other person, which officials see as a stable infection rate.
If R is greater than one, it means the epidemic is growing.
If it is less than one the epidemic is shrinking.
Sturgeon’s comments
came as she announced that 101 people had tested positive in Scotland for coronavirus in the past 24 hours.
The new figure takes into account the total number of positive cases across the country since the start of the outbreak to 20,889.
Sturgeon announced there has been one hospital death from a positive case which occurred in mid-August and has only now been confirmed, with the total number of deaths rising to 2496.
A total of 259 people are currently being treated in hospital with four in intensive care, which is one fewer than yesterday.