People are being urged to continue to follow the rules as Cumbria saw a small rise in the number of coronavirus cases in the latest weekly figures.
Colin Cox, Cumbria’s director of public health, said as lockdown restrictions ease, people must remember to follow the rules.
New cases rose from 114 to 134, although the infection rate remained low at 27 cases per 100,000 people and well below the England cases of 70 cases per 100,000 and North West average of 56 cases per 100,000.
However, Copeland saw almost a five-fold increase in cases – although Mr Cox stressed that the actual number of cases remained relatively low overall as more recent data suggests that this spike was associated with specific outbreaks rather than indicating a changing overall trend.
Case rates in all districts continue to be carefully monitored.
While secondary school-age children did account for the highest number of new infections in the county the total numbers remained comparatively low.
The number of new admissions to hospitals remained low and the total number of people in hospital with COVID-19 continued to decline.
Hospitals continue to operate strict social distancing measures on their sites which does significantly affect the number of patient beds available.
Almost 60 per cent – 238,238 – of people over 18 eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine have received their first dose and early data suggests that this is having an impact, new infections among people over 50 continue to decline steeply.
Mr Cox said: “At the moment Cumbria seems to have broadly stabilised at around 25 cases per 100,000 population and the short-term spikes in some parts of the county last week are in line with what we would expect to see in these circumstances.
“We are in a much better position than other parts of the north-west which is really positive, but we won’t really know the full effect of schools opening and the easing of lockdown restrictions for a couple of weeks so we must not get complacent.
“As we head into the Easter holidays, I really urge people to continue to follow the new rules. It’s great we can meet more people, but do it outside, give each other space and remember the hand washing.
“I’d also remind people that they can get a free rapid-result COVID-19 test if they would like reassurance before they meet with others. Fingers crossed for good weather.”
