COVID cases in the county could be four times higher than offical figures suggest, Cumbia's public health director has said.

Colin Cox fears the number of cases could be significantly higher than government data suggests after free tests were scrapped earlier this month.

Mr Cox said despite official figures suggesting the rate was below 500 cases per 100,000 population, he believes it could be as high as 2,000 cases a week.

He urged people with symptoms to isolate until they are better to reduce transmission of the virus.

He told the BBC: "So my guess is four times higher than official rates and that's translating into high pressures in hospitals.

"It really does feel like there are very few tools in the toolbox left and what we recommend is if people have symptoms of Covid and they can't do a test then they should still be isolating until they are better.

"That's still the public health advice but it's obviously not the law any longer."

Mr Cox was reported to have said many people were now 'weary' of the pandemic and believe they will not be too adversely affected by catching Covid.

He said it was more challenging to get people to follow public health advice to protect vulnerable people from the virus.

Mr Cox's comments came as a survey revealed the proportion of people who fully self-isolate after testing positive for Covid-19 has fallen sharply since the rules were scrapped in England at the end of February.

Just over half (53 per cent) of people questioned said they had followed the full advice for self-isolating, down from four in five (80 per cent) in February when isolation was a legal requirement.

The survey was carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) between March 17 and 26, nearly a month since the Government removed all rules for self-isolation in England on February 24.

At the time of the survey, adults and children who tested positive for coronavirus were advised to stay at home and avoid contact with others for at least five full days, and to follow this guidance until they had received two negative test results on consecutive days.