COLIN Cox, Cumbria's director of public health, threw open his doors for the first time online last night, with his first ever 'Ask Collin' Sergey on the Pandemic.

Mr. Cox was very impressed with the amount of questions he received. Speaking to over one hundred participants who logged-on to take part and hear what the director of public health had to say. Mr Cox said: "I'm kicking myself that I didn't think of using Facebook before to do a question and answer session, I will aim from now on to make this a regular occurrence during the pandemic."

Mr Cox started by speaking briefly about the news of a vaccine. He said: "I am optimistic with the news this week, for the potential of a new vaccine to be produced soon. That announcement has left me feeling optimistic today."

While answering questions put to him through the chat box feature, he address the current case load for the county Mr. Cox said: "

The amount of cases we are seeing in Cumbria is going up, but the rate is lower here than in the country as a whole. Barrow has been falling and is now below the England Average. The measures we have been asking people to follow is now working.

Looking ahead to the festive period Mr Cox was less optimistic saying; " The lockdown measures will soon start to show a good effect in time for Christmas. However I am concerned that the government will be put under pressure to allow people to let their hair down over the festive period, only to see another spike of the illness in the new year.

Mr Cox read out each question in turn, including one which asked him his position on schools remaining open. Mr Cox thinks its a good thing, but with a warning. He said: "The national drive to keep schools open is for the health and wellbeing of young people. Schools being open has a massive impact on people who are parents and who go to work and look after their family; particularly for primary schools kids, where transmission is limited. But secondary schools you are closer to an adult age and those older children respond more like adults to Covid 19. The older secondary school ages may have to be looked at again.

When asked if this lockdown will be any different from the last one, Mr Cox though that lessons had been learnt

saying; "People in hospital now are not getting as seriously ill this time, as we have better ways of dealing with patients, so they are spending less time in hospital. However We can expect to see a continued rise for some time yet. The number of cases are followed for hospitalisations but with the lag in figures , the number of deaths will rise in the next few weeks even if lockdown measures are effective.

Mr Cox ended with advise to take on board regarding test and trace. He said: If you have Covid symptoms of fever, loss of taste, or loss of smell, please immediately self isolate and get tested.

If you come back positive them your family should also self isolate.

Mr Cox said he will announce the next questions and answer session soon.