Wide-scale lockdowns including shop and school closures have reduced Covid-19 transmission rates in Europe enough to control its spread and may have averted more than three million deaths, researchers say.

In a modelling study of lockdown impact in 11 nations, Imperial College London scientists said that the draconian steps, imposed mostly in March, had “a substantial effect” and helped bring the infection’s reproductive rate below one by early May.

The reproduction rate, or R value, measures the average number of people that one infected person will pass the disease on to. An R value above 1 can lead to exponential growth.

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