Coronavirus infection rates are dropping in south Cumbria – but health chiefs are warning people not to let up.

In Barrow, new cases saw a 20 per cent drop, while cases were down 11 per cent in South Lakeland.

The drop was recorded in the seven days up to January 15, the most recent available data.

Despite recent drops, several parts of south Cumbria still have high rolling infection rates.

Roose has the highest infection rate on 589.9 cases per 100,000 people.

The area recorded a 44 per cent drop in new cases from the previous week.

The Kendal town and Greenside area has the second highest rate in south Cumbria with 580.

A rise of 22 new cases, or 81.5 per cent, was recorded from the previous seven days.

The Hawcoat and Furness Abbey area of Barrow has a rolling infection rate of 557.8.

Cases dropped 23.6 per cent from the previous week.

Swarthmoor and Low Furness has the lowest infection rate in south Cumbria on 129.5

Ten new cases were recorded, a drop of 44 per cent on the week prior.

Millom and Duddon Valley has a rolling rate of 560.1 after an increase in new cases by 205.6 per cent.

Colin Cox, Cumbria's director of public health, warned the public not to be complacent.

He said: “There are early signs that the number of infections are starting to go down; however, we know it can take a few weeks for that to reduce the impact on our NHS, so we are not out of the woods yet.

"The arrival of the vaccine and the speed and scale of the vaccination programme here in Cumbria is providing us all with some much needed optimism to get coronavirus under control.

"But, for now, in order to protect the NHS and ensure that it can keep providing appropriate care across the county, we all need to be rigorous about following the lockdown rules in order to keep driving down the rate of infection in Cumbria.”