WARSAW (Reuters) – The novel coronavirus reproduction rate in Poland is falling and authorities expect it to reach 1 in the coming days, the health ministry said on Monday.
The number is one of several indicators authorities are watching when deciding on loosening coronavirus restrictions for the public. Public health experts say that an R number of 1 or above would make it impossible to loosen.
“The infection reproduction rate is falling and we expect that in the coming days it will reach 1, meaning that one person will infect at most one person,” a health ministry spokesman said.
Poland started to lift some of its restrictions last month, saying that the lockdown is too costly for the economy.
The spokesman also said that authorities had not seen an increasing number of infections in recent days.
(Reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz, writing by Alan Charlish; editing by Agnieszka Barteczko and Angus MacSwan)
