Jersey's R Number goes down due to social distancing and lockdown
Social distancing and strict lockdownmeasures have seen the coronavirus infection rate in Jersey drop to less than half.
The reproduction number - or 'R number' as it is more commonly known - is the data showing how quickly people with the disease can infect others. This fell from 2.6 at the start of March, to less than 0.5 at the end of April in Jersey.
The data, which comes from a report published by Statistics Jersey, outlines that if the R number stands at 2, that means each new infection will infect two other people, and these two new infections will then each infect two new people and so forth.
The method has been developed by scientists at Imperial College London, and it estimates the island's coronavirus R number on a daily basis. It shows that early on in the outbreak in Jersey, the R number ranged from 1.9 to 2.6, which reduced to 0.9 to 1.1 following social distancing rules and school closures.
Since lockdown it has ranged from 0.4 to 1.0. Jersey's Health Minister has thanked Statistics Jersey for its report.
However, Deputy Renouf is continuing to urge islanders to maintain a physical distance from people outside their homes and not become complacent as the government works through the levels of the Safe Exit Framework from lockdown.