More than 1,200 tuned in to hear Dorset Council's broadcast of the current situation with coronavirus in the area, with hundreds submitting questions to be answered.

The authority hosted the update with Matt Prosser, chief executive of Dorset Council, and Sam Crowe, director of Public Health Dorset, yesterday (Thursday).

Mr Crowe, reported there was a steep rise in cases earlier in the month due to a combination of schools returning, higher infection rates in some neighbouring areas and colder weather. There was a rise in infection rates in the 18 to 20 age group, at work places, schools and care homes.

He said: "We've had more and more reports of Covid affecting GP surgeries, affecting our community hospitals and we've had at least one outbreak in a ward in one of our hospitals.

"I'm glad to say that after seeing that rise in the first two weeks of October, it does look as though infections are beginning to settle down. We're currently at around 64 cases per 100,000 population in the Dorset Council area. That amounts to 20 or so positive cases of Covid per day.

"It's below the current rate for South West England, which is around 84 cases per 100,000 population and it's also below the rate for England as a whole, which is currently at almost 170 cases per 100,000."

He added there was about 44 people currently in hospital with Covid-19, which had 'gone up a lot over the last couple of weeks' and the biggest cause of transmission was within households with incidents in workplaces also rising.

He said they we're still seeing lots of care home staff testing positive, which enabled them to keep care home residents safe by making sure the staff were self-isolating.

Mr Crowe added: "At the moment we're focusing on enhanced communications, targeting key groups facing those higher infection rates, through to improving our range of testing sites to increase accessibility testing for people who can't necessarily drive."

Mr Prosser reported the council were ready to offer financial support to local businesses if the tier level was to go up in the Dorset Council area and support was still available for those with health conditions self-isolating.

One of the questions asked if the county was moved to a higher tier, would it be pan Dorset or separate for the Dorset Council area and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP)

Mr Crowe said that if case rates were very different between the two council areas, it was possible to have different alert levels but this has caused confusion in other parts of the country.

He said: "I suspect, if we were in that situation where we were seeing that type of rise in not just Dorset Council but other councils in the south west, we may be looking as a regional discussion around moving to tier two."

It was also asked if it was possible to stop people coming into Dorset.

Mr Prosser said: "We can't prevent people from coming to Dorset, what we can do is try and ensure those that do come to Dorset do so respectfully and safely.

"We welcome responsible and respectful tourists to support out local businesses and economy, which has clearly had a turbulent year this year.

"We have people that live in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and work in the Dorset Council area, we have people who will live in Wiltshire, over the border in Hampshire or Devon who work in this area and if we were to close down the borders, it might have a negative impact on our workforce as well as our wider economy."

Another question was why did Public Health Dorset not publish statistics on hospital cases and deaths.

Mr Crowe said it is starting to include that data on its Covid updates but the information is in the public domain elsewhere, such as NHS England and Care Quality Commission for care home statistics.

"In the early days we took the step of respecting some of the sensitivity around that data," he said, "especially when there's low numbers."

The possibility of a local test and trace system was also brought up.

Mr Crowe said: "We've decided for now not to do local test and trace. That's because we work very closely with the regional health protection team to follow up on cases, particularly those connected with high risk settings like care homes, schools and workplaces, and that system is working really well.

"The current completion rate in our area for following up on positive cases are in excess of 70 per cent and the completion rate of following up on the contacts of those cases is also around 70 per cent."

He said the real issue was compliance with self-isolation.

"From studies done elsewhere in England, there's a suggestion that perhaps up to 70 to 80 per cent of people are not completely self-isolating.

"For that reason, what we are doing is offering additional calls to people who test positive. We put in a welfare call just to check in with that person, check they are ok and ask if they have any additional needs. That kind of check-in is really welcomed by people who are self-isolating and that's how we feel we can add value to the current service.

"If things change and we were required to start to do local contact tracing, if we have more serious outbreaks, we are thinking about our contingency plans."