Health bosses warn Luton can expect a 'winter surge' in Covid-19 cases

The town has "significantly higher cases than we would wish,” according to the council's director of healthy lives, Lucy Hubber.

She said: “We have the second highest rate in the east of England and although it is coming down, our incidents rate is still relatively high.

“Our positivity rate, which when we went into intervention was about five per cent, has dropped right down and is about 1.6 per cent.

“But it’s slowly creeping back up again. So we continue to encourage our population to be tested.

“We’ve started to consider how we’ll cope as a council and in our public health response in the face of a winter surge. What we can expect to see is an increase in cases potentially for a longer duration than we saw in the springtime.

“One of the reasons is because people will spend less time outdoors."

Ms Hubber told the council's health and well-being board that the drive-through testing venue will be moved back to London Luton Airport.

She added: “We’re using the £1.4m allocated to Luton for our outbreak control plan as smartly as we can because we’re not sure how long it’s got to last.”

Labour Farley councillor Mahmood Hussain called for more testing, and said the earlier flu jabs start the better.

The council's director of public health, Gerry Taylor said: “It’s very easy for numbers to start to increase quite rapidly.

“The recommendations are to continue to stay at home as much as you can, maintaining a two-metre distance.

“When you do go out into an enclosed space, make sure you are wearing a face covering in all enclosed spaces.

"We ask people not to meet up in households. If anyone is meeting up socially, then meet up outside with no more than six people."

“We’ve been commended nationally for the work we’ve been doing in Luton and really showing good practice in trying to tackle Covid-19 locally.”

Director of clinical transmission, Dr Nina Pearson added: “As ever Luton is being very innovative and resourceful and making a little bit go a long way.”