IT WILL take more than three months for the number of daily coronavirus infections to halve in the South East, new data estimates.

Research released by Public Health England and Cambridge University claims it will take 108 days for the figure to drop by 50 per cent.

That means it will take longer for the number of new daily cases to halve in the South East than it will take anywhere else in the country.

The scientists also estimate it will take 53 days for the number of daily deaths in South East to halve. Only in the North West is this expected to take longer.

Meanwhile the data claims the average Covid-19 patient in the region will pass on the virus to 0.97 people.

This means the reproduction number, or R number, is 0.97 in the South East.

That places the region behind the South West and the North West, which have R numbers of one and 1.01 respectively.

The number of daily infections in the South East is currently decreasing by 0.01 per cent, the data claims.

The data also estimates 641,000 people in the South East have been infected with the virus during the pandemic. That is seven per cent of the 9.2 million people living in the region.

Only the South West has had a lower proportion of its population infected with the virus.

But the scientists warned there is some evidence the reproduction rate has risen everywhere in England, most likely due to “increasing mobility and mixing between households”.

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