POLICE will increase their presence across York to make sure residents are adhering to lockdown measures, a senior officer has said.

Speaking at a briefing by the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum yesterday, Superintendent Michael Walker said North Yorkshire Police will enforce the new lockdown regulations "where necessary”.

He added: “We have again been looking at our patrol schedules and I can confirm we will be increasing our presence across York and North Yorkshire because of the public expect that of us.”

Mr Walker added that the force was still waiting on the new government legislation to determine the new powers given to police - but that he expected them to be the same as the previous two lockdowns.

He added: “We issued numerous fines to people over the Christmas period and will be doing so again if people fail to stay at home.

“These will begin at £200 and an increase for every further violation.

“We are reaching a perilous point for the county - as well as the country - and everyone must come together to play their part in helping to get the case rates down.”

Mr Walker’s words came after chief officer of North Yorkshire NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, Amanda Bloor, said more than 270 patients were now in Covid intensive care units (ICU) across the county - a rise of 70 in just one week.

She added: “There are currently 271 patients in ICU Covid wards across North Yorkshire. While this is lower than the peak of 302 back in the first lockdown in April, we are yet to see the impact of Christmas on our hospitals, and so we are expecting that to rise.”

And she added that 352 members of staff across the trust were currently off with coronavirus, or self-isolating, adding to hospital pressure.

Meanwhile, the rate of positive coronavirus cases - those going for tests and coming back positive - had trebled in the last week.

Richard Webb, corporate director of health and adult services for North Yorkshire County Council, said 68 care homes across the county had now recorded outbreaks of Covid-19. He added that 45 of the outbreaks had occurred in the last week.