A HEALTH chief has warned that although cases in Copeland, and across the UK, are falling, it is not the time to “relax our guard.”

Official Government figures recorded 84 cases of coronavirus in Copeland within the last seven days.

Cumbria’s director of public health Colin Cox said that although the data is moving in the right direction, the fight is not over.

“The numbers in Copeland have been falling for about two weeks now so things are definitely moving in the right direction. What we mustn’t do now is think it’s all over and start to relax our guard.”

Copeland’s number of confirmed cases in seven days has halved since the previous week which the health chief said is “really positive.”

He added that the significant falling in figures is a tribute to those following Government guidance during the second lockdown.

Mr Cox said: “People have been fantastic in supporting the efforts to get the rates down by following the guidance, and that’s the only way we can keep getting the numbers down.”

The public health director told the press on Tuesday that he expects Cumbria to be placed in one set of county-wide Covid-19 restrictions when lockdown ends on December 2 and his expectation is that the county will be in tier two.

He told The Whitehaven News: “When the Tiering arrangements were first put in place we had a situation where Barrow had a rate more than three times higher than on the west coast so treating them the same didn’t make much sense.

“At the moment, however, there’s not a huge difference in the case rates between the Districts so it makes sense for us to be in the same Tier.”

Although full details of tier restrictions beyond the second lockdown are yet to be confirmed, tier two currently indicates the area is on “high alert.”

Before the second nationwide lockdown, tier two restrictions meant that residents of an area could not socialise with anyone that they do not live with, pubs and bars remain closed but other businesses can operate if able to do so in a “Covid-secure” way.

Cumbria has seen 9,855 cases of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, a rate of 1,971 per 100,000 people.

Copeland has seen 1,141 cases since the pandemic began.