LONDON (Reuters) - The estimated COVID-19 reproduction number in Britain rose to 1.3-1.6 from 1.2-1.5, the government said on Friday, indicating a possible increase in transmission of the coronavirus. An “R” number above 1 indicates infections will grow at an exponential rate. “An R number between 1.3 and 1.6 means that on average every 10 people infected will infect between 13 and 16 other people,” the Government Office for Science said. The government also said the number of new infections was growing by 5% to 9% every day, up from an estimate of between 4% and 8% last week.