IN the past week Police in North Yorkshire have issued a further 143 fixed penalty notices for Covid breaches in the county, bringing the total since the third lockdown on January 6 to 471.

This was an increase on the previous week which totalled 83.

Seventeen of the latest FPNs have been handed out in Craven - 16 of them to visitors for 'being outside a place of living' and one for 'outdoor gathering'.

Of those handed out, 15 were to males and two to females.

Since January 6, Craven has seen 43 FPNs handed out, but only three to residents. All but one were for being outside a place of living.

The breakdown of recipients for these breaches were: male (37) and female (6).

Scarborough remains the top of the list with 193 penalty notices handed out in total.

North Yorkshire Police superintendent Mike Walker said since the pandemic began the force had issued 2,359 fixed penalty notices.

He said at a meeting of the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum yesterday: "It is frustrating and disappointing to see an increase in breaches on the previous week.

"Due to the continued Covid breaches we are going to respond by deploying more dedicated resources to support the enforcement activity."

Members at the NYLRF meeting were told there had been a small cluster of the South African variant of Covid-19 in the Scarborough borough identified. They had been linked to international travel and there was no community link.

Those involved were self isolating.

Despite the number of Covid cases beginning to fall, people are asked to keep following the rules.