Hundreds of schools in north west England have been 'strongly advised' not reopen on Monday morning after it was revealed the R rate has risen in the area. Health officials at Blackburn and Darwen Council, which runs 85 schools in Lancashire, emailed local schools on Friday evening advising them not to reopen. The R value refers to the average number of people that will contract coronavirus from an infected person. The north west has the highest rate of Covid-19 infections in England according to Public Health England (PHE), and data released on Friday afternoon suggested the R value is higher than 1 in the region. Data from PHE released on Friday gave an R value of 1.01 for the North West and 1.0 for the South West, with all other regions below 1.

Source: Daily Mail June 06, 2020 16:06 UTC