Massachusetts now has the lowest COVID-19 transmission rate of any state in the country, according to a website that has been compiling state data and tracking transmission trends.
The current Rt for the coronavirus in Massachusetts — a measure of a virus’s average transmission rate at a given point in time — is estimated at 0.67, according to the website Rt.live, comfortably below the 1.0 threshold that signifies rapid spread.
The Rt value is essentially the number of people that one infected person transmits the virus to.
“The way you really get in trouble with this virus is the reproduction rate — you know, how fast does one person become two, become four, becomes eight, becomes 16, becomes 32 and the like,” Governor Charlie Baker said last week.
The District of Columbia has the second-lowest transmission rate, 0.69 according to the site. In New England, Vermont is the only state with an Rt value above 1, estimated to be 1.03 as of Monday. New Hampshire’s rate is estimated at 0.93, Maine’s at 0.86, Rhode Island’s at 0.78, and Connecticut’s at 0.72.
The highest Rt value in the country belongs to Hawaii, at 1.57.
Overall, there are 31 states with an Rt value at or above 1.
