England’s R rate getting above one casts a shadow over positive holiday news from Spain and France
Developments on two fronts today – one positive for those looking for a return to normality and one that is very negative.
The so called R Rate is up in England to between 1 and 1.2. The R number, of course, is a measure of the average number of people an infected person will go on to infect. When this is going downwards below 1 COVID is in decline but when it goes above, like that announced today, the battle against COVID is faltering.
The latest figure follows last week when it was between 1 and 1.1.
On the travel front the two most popular destinations for UK tourists. France and Spain, have both announced that fully vaccinated Brits will be able to come to their countries from next week. The only problem here is that both destinations are still on the government’s Amber list and it hard to see any relaxation while the R rate is edging upwards.