CUMBRIA’s director of public health says it is important to remember the virus is ‘still out there’ despite a drop in the number of people dying in hospitals due to coronavirus.

Colin Cox also revealed contact tracing in Cumbria has begun to pilot the systems.

Mr Cox added: “It’s starting to look like it’s getting better.

“But for me it’s really important we have the right sort of contact tracing systems in place before we ease lockdown all that much further.

“There’s a lot of work nationally and locally.

“We’ve already started to do some contact tracing at a local level to pilot those systems, so they’re ready to go when we need them.

“I think it’s important that we say the virus is still out there, it’s still circulating, so it’s really important that people do maintain the social distancing rules that we have been encouraging people to follow up on.

“The number of deaths is going down but that doesn’t mean people should think the whole virus has gone away because it hasn’t.”

The most recent recorded death in Cumbria due to Covid-19 was on May 25 by the Morecambe Bay Hospitals Trust.