Nottinghamshire's R number above 1 as cases in county risepublished at 13:16 British Summer Time 11 September 2020
Alex Regan
BBC News
The R number in Nottinghamshire is estimated to be between 1.1 and 1.8, the county's public health official has said.
Jonathan Gribbin said the county's rate of infection has risen as the number of positive cases have increased, with five areas seeing more than 20 cases per 100,000 people.
The R number, or reproduction number, is the number of people that one infected person will pass a virus on to on average and is a way of testing a disease's ability to spread.
Across the UK at the start of the month, the R number was estimated to be 0.9 and 1.1.
"If it is indeed as high as 1.8, that might mean we expect to see cases doubling in less than a week," Mr Gribbin said.
He added although the R number was "not significantly greater" than some areas of the country, it is a cause for concern "as we move into the autumn and winter months".
Nottingham City Council's director of public health Alison Challenger said she is "concerned that there is quite a sharp increase in Covid cases across our area".
In the city there have been 80 confirmed cases in the last week, compared with 34 the previous week.
"It is community-wide which is why we're particularly concerned," she said.
She also warned people to "take extreme care" when socialising this weekend before stricter rules on social gatherings come into force.
Ms Challenger said although the so-called "rule of six" will be in place in England from Monday, "the virus is quite prevalent now in our communities".