The R0 or the reproduction number in Czechia has dropped again from the last week’s 0.8 to 0.7. The Minister of Health Jan Blatný, suggested on Thursday that the Czech Republic might enter the fourth degree of PES already on Monday, downgrading from the current fifth.
The results regarding the new number were shared by the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic.
The reproduction number indicates how fast the virus can spread by showing the average number of the people one ill person can infect when the population is not immune. For example, the highest R-number is seen in measles where one infected person can infect 15 others, meaning the R-number is 15. If the number remains above 1, the spread will continue exponentially. If the number is kept below 1, the epidemic will eventually resolve on its own. The adopted measures and developing immunity have an impact on the R-value. However, the R0 might not be the most accurate way of measuring the rate of the spread of COVID-19 since many people remain asymptomatic or never report their symptoms.
Earlier, the ex-minister of Health, Roman Prymula, suggested that the value of 0.8 is needed to significantly slow the spread down in the Czech Republic. This value was reached last week.
In the middle of September, the R0 number was at 1,6. A gradual easing of COVID-19 measures is also expected.
“If the increase in cases can be reduced and stable at the level of the reproduction number of 0.8, the individual measures will be gradually released at the shortest possible intervals,” the ex-minister of Health, Roman Prymula, said earlier.
