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The UK Health Security Agency will stop publishing modeling data on the coronavirus in early January.
Chief Data Scientist Dr. Nick Watkins said the release of this specific data “is no longer necessary” as the country continues to live with Covid thanks to vaccines and therapeutics.
R ranges and growth rates for England were published weekly during the height of the epidemic, and fortnightly from April this year. It was first published for the whole of the UK in May 2020, until April 2021 when it was published for England only.
The reproductive rate, R rate, refers to how many people an infected person will pass the virus on to.
The UKHSA Epidemiology Modeling Review Group (EMRG) said the next publication of its consensus statement on Covid-19 on 6 January would be the “final”, following a detailed review.
It said that data on Covid-19 incidence will be accessible from the Office for National Statistics Infection Survey.
EMRG Chair Watkins said: “During an epidemic, the R value and growth rate serve as useful and simple indicators to inform public health action and government decisions.
“Now that vaccines and therapeutics have allowed us to get to the stage where we are living with Covid-19, surveillance is reduced but still closely monitored by a number of different indicators, the release of this particular data is no longer necessary.
“We continue to monitor Covid-19 activity in the same way we monitor many other common illnesses and diseases.
“All data releases are kept under constant review and these modeling data can be re-introduced immediately if necessary, for example, if a new type of concern is identified.”
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