'No sleepovers': Health chief's plea to Northamptonshire families to use half term as a Covid-19 'circuit breaker'

'Meet outside in the daytime, do not mix households - and certainly no sleepovers'.

This is the appeal by the Northamptonshire's health chiefs urging the families not to go wild over half term in a bid to drive the county's infection rate down.

In a press conference today (October 16), it was revealed Northamptonshire has recorded more than 1,100 new cases between September 28 and Oct 11.

In fact, for the second week in a row, the county has set a new weekly record for a spike in cases.

Now, the county's director of public health Lucy Wightman is asking families to use the upcoming October half term as a "natural circuit breaker" and take the chance to stop the spread.

The advice for the county's families include:

■ Strictly follow national guidance

■ Meet to play outside in the park instead of private gardens

■ Meet outside in the day time

■ Do no mix households

■ No sleepovers

It comes after Northamptonshire was placed in the Government's new Tier One of restrictions - but the county has been warned it has reached a "tipping point" that could send it into tier two or three.

Director Wightman told the conference today: "Just because you can do something at tier one, doesn't mean you should, particularly with mixing households.

"We in particular need to ask that households do not have sleepovers. We've seen evidence of sleepovers being behind outbreaks at schools.

"If we use half-term as a 'circuit breaker', we might be able to avoid isolation to level two or three."

It comes after last week it was reported the county had saw a new all-time high spike in cases, with 417 positive tests between September 28 and October 11.

However, this week Northamptonshire set a new record of 701 cases between October 4 and 11, meaning the county has seen at least more than 1,100 new cases in the space of a fortnight.

In the last two weeks, the greatest number of new cases has been recorded among residents aged 10 to 19 and 20 to 29.