Cumbria's progress towards controlling coronavirus could be rapidly undone by a "second peak" if the lockdown unravels prematurely, Cumbria's top public health official has warned.

Colin Cox, Cumbria's director of public health, has stressed that despite a slowing in the rate of deaths from Covid-19 across Cumbria and beyond, the country was not ready for a relaxation of the lockdown.

"We are going to have to relax the lockdown, we cannot carry on as we currently are indefinitely," he said. "To relax it before we have a really good comprehensive system of case finding, contact tracing, testing and isolation of cases, that's what risks a rise in cases."

Mr Cox says this system, which is not yet in place, could involve up to 15,000 call handlers and 3,000 public health and medical specialists working across the country.

"You need to be able to stamp down on any outbreaks fast, if you're going to release the lockdown," he said.

"I certainly wouldn't expect to see a large-scale relaxation of the lockdown without that contact tracing system in place."

Mr Cox said he was concerned that the higher numbers of people encountered by the police out and about across Cumbria this weekend indicated that people were "easing the lockdown themselves."

"I think that's a risk," he said.

"This is about protecting other people as well as protecting yourself.

"We've got an older population than average - to an extent Cumbria is more vulnerable. It is really important that people look after everybody else by carrying on following the guidance."

Mr Cox said there was no indication that a regionally-specific lockdown was a serious consideration for the Government in Westminster, despite figures publicised at its briefing on Sunday that showed for the first time there were fewer people in hospital with coronavirus in London than there were in the north west of England.

"We're not hearing any speculation at the moment about regional lockdowns, or anything along those lines. We'll have to wait to see what the national position is on this," he said.

"It's not something we've talked about at the strategic coordination group at this stage.

"If it's what comes through nationally, then we will implement it as best we can. Inevitably, there would be challenges, particularly for somewhere like Cumbria, where tourism is such a prominent part of its economy."

Recent figures on the number of deaths from coronavirus in Cumbria do suggest the county is experiencing a slowing of its Covid-19 death rate.

"Certainly in hospitals the data suggests the number of deaths in hospitals is falling all the time," Mr Cox said.

He stressed that this slowing down in the rate of deaths was not as dramatic in non-hospital settings in Cumbria, judging by death registration data.

"But it's certainly not rising at the moment, as far as we can see," he said.

The upcoming "test, track and trace" stage in the UK's coronavirus response, which Mr Cox suggested was at least three weeks away, would involve health officials interviewing anyone who tested positive for Covid-19 to determine who they had been in contact with, then alerting these people to the possibility they had been infected.

"This was happening in the early days of Covid-19," Mr Cox said. "Eventually, you get to a point where you can't do it anymore because there's just too many cases.

"We've got people in Cumbria who are very experienced at contact tracing. It's something environmental health staff do all the time when you've got salmonella outbreaks, for example.

"We know how to do it, the challenge is the number of cases.

"We're expecting this system to come into place in three weeks' time, somewhere in that region.

"After that, I think it's reasonable to start talking about how we lift the lockdown.

"If we do it carefully, slowly and keep a track on what's happening, keep monitoring what's happening so we can put the lockdown back in place if we need to, then we will minimise the potential for a second peak."