What determines retreat/threat is the rate of exponential change. The exponential appears to have gone negative, and that looks like retreat to me. (1000 per

What determines retreat/threat is the rate of exponential change. The exponential appears to have gone negative, and that looks like retreat to me. (1000 per 100k is not as significant as it sounds, as 1 per 100k is a similar level of threat if the exponential is positive. That's just a time lag difference of a few weeks.) For responsibility, you could think of it another way. Saying the "virus is in retreat" implies "lockdown is working - yay!" and might encourage the people currently voting on near-future regional restrictions to carry on because it appears to be working. Right now, some MPs are threatening to block the government from implementing targeted, regional restrictions for the next couple of months, so the government is having to negotiate for lesser restrictions. Perhaps the Reuters headline will encourage them to keep up the restrictions for a while longer.