Health secretary Matt Hancock confirms coronavirus R rate below 1 in Burnley

Burnley MP Antony Higginbotham sought clarification during the debate in the House of Commons yesterday, asking the health secretary to confirm whether reports of the R rate increasing over 1 were accurate.

“There have been lots of news reports about the R rate over the last few days, particularly whether the North-West has gone above 1.

"This has understandably caused concern in Burnley. I asked the Health Secretary about this explicitly. He confirmed that, on the basis of all the evidence, the rate was still

below 1 in the North-West, including in Burnley,” said Mr Higginbotham.

“We must all stay alert and look at all the evidence –we are still defeating this virus” he added.

Matt Hancock also told ministers that with the R value falling and the number of infections expected to drop the Government could proceed with plans to ease the lockdown, which include the proposed opening of non-essential shops from June 15th.

"But we must be vigilant and we must be cautious, and we are taking a safety-first approach. It means that we can proceed with our plan of making some changes, for instance looking towards the proposals that have been made next week on the retail sector, and that people can have confidence to take their children to school in the three years that we've opened so far."

Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government's chief scientific adviser, said on Friday that the prevalence of Covid-19 was on a "downward trajectory" in the UK. He confirmed R rate for England was between 0.7 and 1 based on regions – but remained between 0.7 and 0.9 for the UK as a whole.

The R-number is the average number of people that will contract coronavirus from an infected person.

If R is one or higher, the virus will spread exponentially through the population. An R number of less than one indicates the virus is in decline.