Both things are important. The R number tells you which direction you're headed. If you're significantly below 1, you can relatively safely open up a little m

Both things are important. The R number tells you which direction you're headed. If you're significantly below 1, you can relatively safely open up a little more and see where that leaves you. However, new case counts and new deaths matter a lot. Even with, say, R=0.8, with a big outbreak, people will continue to get sick and die. It also means that if you underestimate the effect of opening up and wind up with R>1, you can start running into capacity problems, either contact tracing, testing, or hospital capacity. It's best to get case counts low and declining, and then start opening things up.