The next week or so will be 'critical' in showing how recent lockdown rule changes impact local Covid rates, according to Leicestershire's top public health boss.

Mike Sandys, director of public health at Leicestershire County Council, said that he expects to see the numbers start to reflect April 12 relaxations – that have seen beer gardens, hairdressers, non-essential retail and gyms re-opening – towards the end of this week.

And he expressed concerns that North West Leicestershire is still an area that needs to be closely monitored.

"This isn't over yet, the road map might be irreversible but it's always been said that the dates are not set in stone. The five weeks between things changing are there for a reason," he said.

"What we don't want to happen is for people to think 'that's it, it's over' and rates to start rising again. The virus is still out there and it will still pass between people just as it has before.

"The next few days are crucial, I'd say I'm still nervous because while rates were low when the changes came, they weren't perhaps as low as in July which is where we'd like them to be. The potential for them to spike back up at any moment is still there."

Giving a quick rundown on some of the areas where rates have been higher, Mike added: "Blaby and Charnwood have been dropping nicely, it's been slow and steady but the decline has and is still there.

"Melton though is back up again, I think it's about tenth in the country now – like before though, I think that's related to a workplace and with an area of Melton's size a relatively small number of cases can have a big impact."

Some areas that are causing concern, are Harborough and North West Leicestershire.

"They were both showing an increase of about 60 per cent at the last check, which sounds maybe worse than it is. That jump up has come from a low base rate, so it could be that the day before there were 20 cases now there are 34, it's still bad but it's not like before when an area would jump up by that much and it would mean lots more cases.

"It's not great news, but it's not as bad news as it would have been earlier in the year."

With May 17 pencilled in as the date the next set of relaxations come into force, Mike warned that how the numbers act after April 12, will be vital when it comes to whether or not the next phase happens when planned.

"The next few days are crucial really, but that said if we do start to see the numbers sneaking up then we will know why. With just over a week passing since the April 12 changes, we'd expect to see any impact start to show towards the end of this week, the start of next and then for another week or so after," he explained.

"The other thing to keep in mind is that schools also went back after Easter which might contribute to a small spike, again though, related to behaviours linked to not at schools, car sharing, parents at the school gates, going to the park after home time."

"It's as important as it's ever been now for us all to be following the hands, face, space guidelines and taking advantage of rapid testing that is on offer too."