A SPIKE in coronavirus cases over the weekend was caused by results acquired in the few days leading up to the second national lockdown, Public Health Dorset has said.

As reported, 434 cases of Covid-19 were recorded in Dorset in the 24 hours leading up to 4pm on Saturday November 14.

296 of these came in the BCP Council area and 138 in the Dorset Council area, significantly higher than recent totals.

Data published on the government website for the 24-hours up to 6.31pm on November 16, showed 455 new cases in the BCP Council area bringing the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 6,255.

Although there were no cases reported in the Dorset Council area in this period it was due to Public Health England updating the way it records the location of people tested for Covid-19.

Read more: Coronavirus: Why there were no cases recorded in Dorset Council area on November 16

Sam Crowe, director of Public Health Dorset said: “Positive cases of Covid-19 recorded over the last few days includes infections acquired in the days leading up to new national lockdown measures on the 5 November. We will see ups and downs so it’s important to look across more than just one day of data.

“It is slightly too early to tell if the national measures are making an impact on our case numbers but, we will start to see any changes over the next week.

“The current measures are in place to help protect all of us, and anyone can suffer serious illness from this virus. Limiting contact with others will help to stop the spread of the virus and protect the people we love.”