A HEALTH chief says Cumbria is moving into the "next phase" of the coronavirus outbreak after a ninth person from the county tested positive for COVID-19.

Cumbria's Director of Public Health Colin Cox said the latest person found to have the virus was in the cardiac unit of Furness General Hospital, where the patient is currently being treated.

"They are well used to managing infection control," said Mr Cox.

With the current number of UK cases standing at 456, Mr Cox said the situation - including the confirmation yesterday that a teacher at Carlisle's Trinity School has coronavirus - had led him to the conclusion that the outbreak is moving from the so-called "containment" stage to the delay phase - recognition that the virus is being transmitted from person to person in the community.

Commenting on the Trinity School case, which has caused considerable anxiety among parents, he said both the infected teacher and the school had followed public health guidelines.

"The teacher behaved reasonably and the school has followed all the public health advice," he said.

"I'm very grateful to the school for this.

"I know it can't have easy for them.

"I understand that the vast majority of children still turned up for school. I'm grateful to parents for respecting that.

"The risk is low."

If huge numbers of children were away from schools, many parents - some of them healthcare professionals - would be forced to stay away from work, weakening the ability of the NHS to cope, he said. Mr Cox said of the situation in Cumbria generally: "I'm certainly expecting the number of cases to rise.

"It feels to me like we're very much moving from the containment phase which the government has talked about to the delay phase of things. When you move to the delay phase there's an expectation that containment is not going to be successful.

"An epidemic is going to happen and you're going to get lots more community transmission, and therefore the purpose is not longer to try to prevent lots of infection; it's to try to manage the shape of the epidemic."

The national strategy is likely to focus on ensuring more "social distancing" between people to slow the spread of coronavirus.

By doing this, the authorities aim to ensure that health services are not overwhelmed. The key message was that while the virus can be easily caught, the risk it poses is low for most people and the majority who catch it will make a full recovery.