Hospital admissions fall 21% in a week as R is down to 0.7

INFECTIONS are falling at the fastest rate since July, Government scientists said yesterday.

Officials said the R rate is between 0.7 and 0.9 across England, meaning the epidemic is shrinking.

The number of Covid-19 hospital patients is at the lowest level for a month after admissions fell 21 per cent in a week. Yesterday 19,114 new cases were reported, with weekly cases down one quarter.

The number of positive tests is at just one third of levels of early January, boosting hopes that an end to lockdown is in sight. Deaths have also fallen by 17 per cent in the past week. A further 1,014 were recorded yesterday. Scientists say they are now certain the R value – the average number of people infected by someone with the virus – is below one in England for the first time since July. It had been as high as 1.4 in the first week of January.

But Sage, the group of scientists which advises the Government, warned: ‘There is evidence to suggest that some of the novel variants of SARS-CoV2 may be growing much faster than other coronavirus variants currently circulating in the UK.’

Separate data from the Office for National Statistics found that one in 65 people – 46,900 in total – had the virus in the final week of January. This is down from one in 50 at the beginning of January.

Professor Chris Whitty has said that the vaccination programme should rapidly reduce deaths, but it will take longer to reduce hospital admissions and cases.