A RISE in new Covid-19 cases in Kirklees has been described as a "powerful warning" not to be complacent. 

The local authority is now fourth highest for new cases in England and latest figures show there has been a rise.

On the week ending June 28, the figure stood at 27.6 new cases per 100,000 population, compared with 32.4 for the week ending July 5.

The figures are based on tests that have been carried out both in laboratories (pillar one of the Government’s testing programme) and in the wider community (pillar two).

Rachel Spencer-Henshall, Strategic Director for Public Health at Kirklees Council said: “After a steady overall decline, the rate of infection in Kirklees has gone up over the past week and we cannot ignore this.

“This is a powerful warning that now is not the time to become complacent and our fight against Covid-19 is not over. Social distancing, hand washing and protecting the most vulnerable in our community are more important now than ever, particularly with the recent easing of lockdown measures.

“In the past few weeks, we’ve acted quickly and decisively to contain outbreaks in local workplaces. This kind of action always leads to more tests and positive cases in the short term which will contribute to our increase.

“We will be analysing the data further over the next few days to learn more and if we need to adjust our action, we will do so.

“We are far from the levels of infection seen in Leicester but we have to take this increase seriously and we all have an equal role to play in getting the rates back down.”