HEALTH chiefs have confirmed that positive cases of Coronavirus have been recorded at two school in Barrow.

Cumbria County Council confirmed cases of the virus at St Bernard’s Catholic High School and Newbarns Primary School.

The former marks the first case recorded in a secondary school in the area.

Three schools in Barrow are now confirmed to have had cases, after a case was confirmed at St Columba’s in Walney.

Health chiefs are said to have given advice to the schools following the confirmed cases.

A number of schools in Furness have issued advice after some pupils and teachers went into self-isolation after showing symptoms associated with the virus.

Askam Village School told some parents that a ‘pupil or member of staff’ that had been in close contact with their child is now showing possible signs of Covid-19.

The individual is currently undergoing testing, the letter said.

They wish to assure parents that pupils may continue to attend class and do not need to isolate until the results of the Covid test are known.

There were seven new cases of the virus confirmed in Barrow yesterday, the highest increase in the county.

Copeland had the second largest increase in cases in Cumbria with five.

It came as Britain’s top scientists warned a second wave of the virus could result in 50,000 new cases a day without action on limiting contact.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s chief scientific adviser told a press conference: “At the moment we think the epidemic is doubling roughly every seven days.

“If, and that’s quite a big if, but if that continues unabated, and this grows, doubling every seven days... if that continued you would end up with something like 50,000 cases in the middle of October per day.

“Fifty-thousand cases per day would be expected to lead a month later, so the middle of November say, to 200-plus deaths per day.

“The challenge, therefore, is to make sure the doubling time does not stay at seven days.

“That requires speed, it requires action and it requires enough in order to be able to bring that down.”

Reacting, Barrow MP Simon Fell said: “Their words were very sobering.

“Given the decisions we’ve only just taken to arrest the spread in Barrow Borough, it’s worth considering Chris Whitty’s words: ‘You cannot in an epidemic just take your own risk... you’re taking a risk on behalf of everyone else’.

“We all need to consider the effects of our actions on others in the coming weeks.”

The number of people admitted to hospital with coronavirus in England is the highest it has been since the end of June, figures show.

The latest Government data reveals 205 people with Covid-19 were admitted to hospital on Friday - the most since June 27, when the figure was 209.

A further 204 patients were admitted to hospital on Saturday, taking the total number of people admitted to hospital with coronavirus in England up to 116,254. The data includes people admitted to hospital in England who tested positive in the 14 days prior to admission, and those who tested positive after admission.