Cumbria has seen another rise in the number of positive Covid-19 cases - though it is the the south of the county that is of particular concern to authorities.

Data released yesterday by the Cumbria Health Protection Board shows there were 77 new cases of Covid-19 identified in the week ending Friday September 11.

This is a rise of 40 per cent over the previous week, when 55 new cases were identified.

However, the distribution of these new cases is not even.

The greatest spike has taken place in the south of the county: 29 new cases were identified in Barrow-in-Furness, and a further 19 in South Lakeland. A total of 11 new cases were identified in Allerdale, eight in Carlisle, five in Copeland and five in Eden.

Collectively, this brought the total number of positive Covid-19 cases in the county to 3,169 for the week ending Friday, September 11.

The data released yesterday shows positive news for Carlisle – five fewer new cases were identified in the week ending September 11 than in the previous week.

However, Barrow-in-Furness represents a particular concern to public health officials.

Last week it had the greatest number of new cases for the second week in a row.

Provisional figures for this week suggest it is now at about 60 new cases per 100,000 - twice the national average.

This has prompted authorities to "strongly advise" Barrow residents limiting their interactions to no more than one other household at a time for the next two weeks, in a bid to avoid a local lockdown.

Colin Cox, Cumbria’s director of public health, said: “The number cases in Barrow has risen rapidly in the last 10 days, and in combination with the way we are seeing infection spreading, this is very concerning.

"Barrow is not yet seeing the level of infection in places like Oldham, but without action this is clearly where we are heading."

“The new local action we are taking today is aimed at protecting local people and stopping Barrow having local lockdown measures imposed upon it by Government."