PUBLIC health leaders have issued a warning to residents of Hambleton amid a dramatic rise in the number of Covid-19 cases over the last two weeks.

The district’s infection rate has doubled and now stands at 242 cases per 100,000 people – the highest in North Yorkshire.

Officials say the rise can in part be attributed to outbreaks at two care homes in the Northallerton area, which were detected through routine testing and mainly involved people with no symptoms, but there is also a hotspot in Hutton Rudby and the surrounding villages.

The cause of this is not clear, but the general increase is being put down to transmission in homes. Richard Webb, North Yorkshire County Council’s corporate director for health and adult services, added: “We know by the nature of these communities people will travel to work or socialise, and people will come from Teesside to see friends or relatives or go to the pubs.”

Louise Wallace, the county’s director of public health, urged people to stick to the rules preventing people from more than one household mixing indoors, highlighting that the impact of the relaxation of restrictions on Christmas Day would not be reflected in the infection figures until next week.

“People have heard messages for many months around handwashing and social distancing and not mixing in other people’s households, but we really need people to stick to it,” she said. “Community spread is because people are mixing indoors.”

The new, more infectious strain of coronavirus that has led to a Tier Four lockdown elsewhere is now present in Hambleton.

Dr Victoria Turner, public health consultant at the council, said there is a much higher chance that the new variant will be passed on from person to person, but its effects and symptoms were no more severe.

The Government is reviewing the tier system this week and it is anticipated that North Yorkshire will move from Tier Two into Tier Three, in which hospitality businesses must close except for takeaway, delivery and click and collect services, as infection rates are now comparable with other areas in Tier Three. It is not clear if the change will come into effect before or after New Year’s Eve, but health officials are urging people to act as though they are already under the highest level of restrictions. Mr Webb said: “We should really reduce social contacts. Just because you can do something does not mean you should.”