Stark warning from Cumbria's Director of Public Health as Covid cases continue to rise
Video report by Lewis Warner
Cumbria's Director of Public Health has issued a stark warning about new lockdown restrictions in Cumbria.
Colin Cox believes stricter rules will soon be imposed on England - similar those already in place in Scotland which ban households from mixing indoors.
It comes as confirmed COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the county, according to the latest data.
105 new infections were recorded in the week ending September 18th, up from 82 the previous week. Of all the Cumbrian districts Barrow had the highest number, with 38 while Carlisle eight new cases
Colin Cox said: "The rates are still steadily rising for the last three or four weeks - they're going in the wrong direction, albeit slowly.
"It's really important that we do continue to the sort of action that we need to take to try and bring this under control."
The director of public health told ITV Border that he was surprised with the Prime Minister's announcement on Tuesday.
He welcomed the decision to close pubs and restaurants at 10pm - but thought Mr Johnson would go further and ban households mixing indoors - like the First Minister did in Scotland.
Mr Cox said: " I was expecting this week that there would be a further restriction on the national rule of six to bring it down to a smaller number of households.
"I understand why the Government is wanting to take these things in steps but I suspect that we will start to see that kind of restriction coming in in future."
Cox continues to ask Cumbrians to download the NHS Test and Trace app, launched on Thursday. He said: "The more people using it, the more effective it will be in helping control the virus.”