LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - UK scientists are no longer
confident that the reproduction number of the coronavirus in
England is below 1, the government said on Friday, even as
latest estimates suggested it was, due to time lags in the data.
"Models that use COVID-19 testing data that have less of a
time delay have recently suggested higher values for R in
England," the Government Office for Science said in a statement
which said the R value for England was 0.8-1.
"For this reason, SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for
Emergencies) does not have confidence that R is currently below
1 in England."
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Stephen Addison)