CUMBRIA’S most senior health chief has reacted to a government minister’s claim that the ‘R’ rate of coronavirus reproduction is below one in all UK regions.

Colin Cox, Cumbria’s director of public health, was responding to Health Secretary Matt Hancock who was speaking at the government's coronavirus briefing on Monday.

Mr Hancock said: “I know there has been a lot of interest in the regional R figure in recent days.

“The estimate of SAGE (the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies), taking into account all of the evidence, is that R is below one in all regions. We can see that in all areas the number of people in hospital with coronavirus is falling in all regions, faster in some areas than in others.”

Mr Cox said: “The figure that the government quotes covers the UK as a whole.

“So when they said that the R in the UK as a whole is between 0.7 and 0.9, that’s the figure that they have been quoting.

“However, it’s very clear that it is possible for the R to be different in different places, and in different settings.

“The figure that came out on Friday, which was looking at regional level data, suggested that the R rate for the North West of England was 1.01, that was its average.

“So that’s the distinction.

“It’s the difference between the country as a whole and different parts of the country.

“The North West figure is very fractually above one, as the average.

“That’s representing the whole of the North West, and again, there’s likely to be some differences within the North West as well.”

The ‘R’ number reflects the number of people each infected person on average would spread the virus to.

If it is below one, the virus is on the decline.

But figures of above one would suggest that it is growing.

On Monday, it was announced that the UK had recorded its lowest daily rise in coronavirus deaths since before lockdown on March 23.

The daily rise in deaths was 55.