JERUSALEM, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Israel's COVID-19 reproduction number, also known as the R number, has dropped to 0.99, according to a report issued by the country's Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center on Thursday.
The R number is an indicator used to determine how fast COVID-19 is spreading, as reproduction rate means the average number of people that a person carrying coronavirus goes on to infect.
When the R number is greater than 1, the number of patients increases at an exponential rate and multiplies from time to time. On the contrary, an R number less than 1 means the spread of the pandemic has been curbed.
The R number in Israel stood at 1.26 on Dec. 27, 2020, the day when the ongoing nationwide COVID-19 lockdown began, and has since gradually dropped.
The last time the R number was below 1 in Israel was in early November, though in mid-October it stood at only 0.6.
So far, a total of 579,016 coronavirus patients have been diagnosed in Israel, 4,210 of whom have died. Enditem
