The latest coronavirus R Rate for Reading, Slough, Berkshire and the south east

[Cookham v Coronavirus]

New government figures show the coronavirus R rate in the south east could be as high as 1.

The rate in the south east now stands at between 0.7 and 1.0, which is a slight rise compared to last week's 0.7 to 0.9 The R rate measures how many people with coronavirus are infected by a single case of Covid-19.


The figures were released on Friday, June 3, hours before pubs and restaurants were reopened, reports Kent Live.
The latest figures show there were no new cases of coronavirus in Berkshire on Sunday, July 5.

Reading still has the largest total number of cases in the county with 766, Bracknell has 375, West Berkshire has 472, Slough 635 and Wokingham 587.

In Windsor and Maidenhead, 399 people have tested positive.

What is the R rate?

The Department of Health says the R number is the average number of secondary infections produced by 1 infected person.

An R number of 1 means one person with the infection will infect one other person, meaning the number of new infections remains stable.

If it rises to two, that means infected person infects two people, which means the number of cases grows. If it falls to 0.5, that means the epidemic is shrinking.

The chances of local lockdowns in Berkshire remain unlikely.

As the latest figures show no new cases anywhere in the county chances of an imminent second lockdown remain extremely low.

People are advised to keep to social distancing and hygiene measures to ensure the infection rate remains low.