To determine when an outbreak has been contained, scientists look at case counts and determine the virus’ reproduction number.
The reproduction number or R0 is the approximate number of people an infected person will go on to infect.
If an outbreak’s R0 drops below one, scientists consider an outbreak contained.
Modelling produced by researchers at Spi-M places the UK’s R0 somewhere between 0.7 and 0.9, and between 0.7 and 1 for England.
There have been more than 286,000 cases of coronavirus in the UK, resulting in more than 40,500 deaths.
source: express.co.uk