A HEALTH chief says figures showing Barrow has the highest rate of coronavirus infection in the country should be ‘viewed with caution’.

Aaron Cummins, chief executive of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, said it was ‘important’ the high levels of testing the trust has carried out was taken into account.

Figures from Public Health England showed Barrow was top of a table of COVID-19 infection rates per 100,000 resident population.

Mr Cummins said: “While we are right to be concerned because the virus is still a challenge to our country, these figures should be viewed with caution.

“It is difficult to carry out a like-for-like comparison for different areas because of the different age structures and other socio-demographic factors, and of course, the varying levels of testing that have been carried out.

“As a trust, we have been testing our colleagues and their family members, local care home staff and other key workers for a significant amount of time and in large numbers.

"It is important that these figures are viewed in this context.

"Further investigation of the data, including the figures from the national testing centres that opened recently, needs to be carried out before any real conclusions can be made.

"However, it does highlight the point that the work isn’t over yet.

"We are still fighting coronavirus and as a trust and wider communities, we need to continue to pull together and do all we can to slow the spread of the virus and protect ourselves and those around us.”

Meanwhile the trust reported no fatalities at its hospitals due to the virus on Saturday, in figures published by NHS England on Sunday.

NHS England confirmed one person died on Friday with COVID-19 at trust hospitals - which include Furness General, Millom Hospital, Westmorland General in Kendal and the Royal Lancaster Infirmary - bringing the total number of virus deaths across the trust to 155.

Experts have warned against over-interpreting daily figures of people dying with coronavirus in the UK, since they often reflect reporting delays and many hospitals will not report deaths that happened over the weekend until the middle of the following week.

On Sunday it was announced a further 269 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died across the UK.

These figures count deaths in hospitals, care homes and the community.

This brought the total number of virus deaths to 31,855.