R number clarification

[mummabear1967]

I live in Northern Ireland and last week, the R number here was estimated to be between 07 - 1.1

What does this actually mean though? Does this mean that R number is no less than 0.7 but no more than 1.1? What is the actual R number likely to be within that range?

Sorry , 0.7 - 1.1 *

0.9

Sorry! They can only estimate, so they give a range.

I don’t know the answer. But as far as I understand NI has very low transmission atm. And I also know that R numbers are very difficult to gauge when transmission numbers are so low. So for example in a certain area cases might rise from 2 to 8, but that’s an awful lot less worrying than them rising from 200 to 800 yet still a significant percentage increase.

I also think that they possibly use a “range” instead of a fixed number because with all the asymptomatic cases, they just don’t know.