Coronavirus rates dip slightly in North Yorkshire as over 700,000 vaccine doses given across North East and Yorkshire

But officials have warned that it is too early to be able to say the county is past the peak of the second wave of the pandemic, with fears that hospital cases will continue to rise.

The rate of positive tests across the county is now 307 per 100,000 people, which is significantly lower than average across England of 478,000.

There are concerns too that while transmission has dropped slightly in the community, a significant number of care homes in the region are seeing a rise in positive cases of covid.

An NHS leader said that all of North Yorkshire’s care home staff and residents were on track to have the first dose of a vaccine by Sunday.

Some 670,778 people in the North East and Yorkshire have now had their first dose of either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccination.

And another 71,378 people in the region have had their second dose of the vaccine.

Amanda Bloor, accountable officer for North Yorkshire CCG, said: “I am really delighted that we continue to make good progress with the vaccination programme.

Thanks to the tremendous efforts of all our colleagues delivering the vaccination programme, we are on course to deliver vaccinations to all care home residents and staff by the end of this week where it’s safe to do so.”

North Yorkshire County Council confirmed on Wednesday that nine of the region’s care settings currently have ten or more residents or staff who are positive for the virus.

Louise Wallace, data director of Public Health North Yorkshire, said the region was seeing approximately 270 positive cases per day.

She said: “The numbers are still high. Whilst we’re seeing a little turnaround in some of the numbers, it’s not a downwards trend.

“It’s vital more than ever that we stick to the rules. There’s really no room for complacency or to let our guard down.”

Cases are highest in Richmond, with 351 positive cases per 100,000, followed by Craven and Selby.

Scarborough has the lowest case level in Yorkshire with 224 cases per 100,000. Louise Wallace said it’s believed the new Kent covid variant is not as prevalent along the coast as it is in other areas of the region.

Hospital cases have continued to rise across the county. 481 North Yorkshire residents are currently in hospital being treated for covid-19, an increase of 84 from last week.

51 of those people are in intensive care units, and NHS bosses confirmed that surge plans are in place across all hospitals in the region, meaning some planned procedures have been postponed and staff deployed to covid wards.