LONDON: The COVID-19 pandemic in Britain is estimated to be shrinking less slowly than it was before, the health ministry said on Friday, adding that the reproduction number could be higher than it was last week but was thought to have remained below one.

The daily growth rate of COVID-19 infections was between -5% and -2%, meaning the number of new infections is shrinking by between 2% and 5% each day, compared to -6% and -3% last week.

The reproduction "R" number was estimated between 0.7 and 0.9, meaning that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between 7 and 9 other people. Last week, it was estimated at between 0.6 and 0.9.