The Harrogate district seven-day covid rate of infection has increased to 58 cases per 100,000 — up from 52 yesterday.

The latest figure is above the North Yorkshire rate of 45 but below the figure for England of 74.

Ten more infections in the district were confirmed today by Public Health England.

The district’s worst affected area is Ousebourn, Hammerton and Tockwith, which has recorded 11 infections in the last seven days. Bilton is next, with nine.

Tadcaster, which has recorded 12, has had the most cases in the whole of North Yorkshire.

However, another day has passed without any deaths at Harrogate District Hospital.

Seventy-eight per cent of adults in the district have received first vaccines; 65 per cent have had second jabs.

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A mobile testing site has opened in Harrogate today for the first time and is set to be there three days a week “until further notice”.

NHS test and trace staff set up the site this morning at West Park car park on Tower Street.

The car park will close on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday each week for testing.

It comes as workers continue to dismantle the permanent testing centre in the Dragon Road car park near Asda, which closed on Sunday (May 23).

Health officials announced in March that the Dragon Road site would close as the Harrogate Convention Centre. The centre said it needs the space for parking.

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The move from a permanent centre to a mobile unit is a further sign that the emergency response to the pandemic is scaling back.

Matthew Robinson, head of resilience and emergencies at North Yorkshire County Council, said:

“The advantages of mobile testing sites is that we can flex and strengthen as we go.

“If cases are increasing in a particular area we will continue to provide more frequent testing in that location.”

The site at the Dragon Road car park is now closed.

This follows news that the vaccination centres in Harrogate and Ripon will also close in August.

Local pharmacy sites in Knaresborough and Pateley Bridge will play a larger part in the vaccine roll out.

For more information on testing go to www.northyorks.gov.uk/book-coronavirus-covid-19-test-if-youve-got-symptoms

Harrogate Borough Council has been allocated £405,000 to tackle homelessness in the district.

The funding is from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s homelessness prevention grant stream.

Grants totalling £310 million have been awarded to local authorities nationally.

The funding can be used to provide temporary accommodation for rough sleepers, to offer financial support for people to find a new home or to prevent evictions.

Kelly Tolhurst, minster for housing and rough sleeping, said the funding would “help councils provide better support to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place as we look to end rough sleeping once and for all”.

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Harrogate homeless shelters

The council has erected temporary emergency homeless units on Tower Street in Harrogate for rough sleepers to use when temperatures drop this winter.

However, despite the recent cold snap they have still yet to be used.

The four units are set to be in place for three months.

A spokesperson for Harrogate Borough Council confirmed today the accommodation has yet to be used.