Health chief's warnings after new cases of coronavirus in Northamptonshire DOUBLE in one week

Northamptonshire has reported its biggest-ever spike in Covid-19 cases in the community since the outbreak began, Public Health Northamptonshire said this afternoon.

Latest figures show at least 417 residents in the county tested positive for the virus between September 28 and October 4.

It means the number of positive tests in the county has more than double compared to the week before, where 185 results were reported.

It is also the greatest rise in cases since the Greencore factory outbreak in August and the biggest jump in positive cases yet.

At a press conference today, director of public health Northamptonshire Lucy Wightman said the jump in cases could 'not be explained away' by the 70 cases in the county that were reported late following an IT glitch at Public Health England.

Mrs Wightman said: "No matter how you cut this and no matter how much deep dive we have done into the data at a postcode level, we are not finding that [the IT glitch] explains the rapid increase. And we are likely to see an increase next week as well.

"This is a countywide position and not limited to individual boroughs and districts.

"We're seeing a significant level of community transmissions particularly within households.

"This is a real warning sign locally. In other areas in the country where we've seen increases like this, three or four weeks later they've seen increases in hospitalisations and deaths.

Every single district in the county has seen an increase, with the greatest rise in cases in Northampton with 121 new positive tests.

It comes ahead of new national guidance expected to be announced on Monday by the Prime Minister - by Mrs Wightman urged Northamptonshire not to wait and to take action on a local level.

She said: "Northamptonshire's residents are being urged to strictly follow the national guidance.

"We are imploring people - just because you can be doing something ask yourself whether you should be doing something.

"We are seeing a significant level of transmission in households.

"People should understand they should be isolating within a room within a household and limiting contact with their family members. If possible utilising a bathroom or a kitchen after other people and taking extra cleaning precautions with a simple bleach based solution."