On May 25, GSL Director Steven Hoffman was quoted in a Global News article about the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Ontario, after the province had started to ease lockdown restrictions.
In the article, Hoffman explained that a useful statistic to look at is a region’s Reproduction (R) number. A reproductive number of one means that the number of cases flatlines. That means that the infection continues, and people are still affected, but it’s not growing. According to Hoffman, “that’s where you want to get to, or ideally, even better than that, a reproduction number below one.” Ontario’s R number has consistently stayed slightly above one, which can lead to exponential growth.
Further, Hoffman contextualized the recent rise of cases in the province. On one hand, he argued that they could be connected to loosened restrictions, but on the other, it is likely that cases have also come across the border with the US.
Read the full article here.
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