R going up

The Covid19 virus is still around and infecting many people. Here in the UK we measure the transmission rate as "R". If the R rate is above 1 then the epidemic is growing in size because each person infected is infecting more than one person on average. 

Right now the "R" rate is above one, I think it is 1.3. This means that some people are infecting more than one person on average. If the "R" was at 2 then we would be in trouble because the epidemic would grow twice as big every 2 weeks. 

I wonder what will happen in winter when there is less sunlight to destroy the virus particles. The ultraviolet light in the sun destroys viruses, but the days are getting shorter all the time and eventually we will be in winter, this means we will have more active virus particles everywhere.