Staffordshire Police have urged residents to comply with lockdown rules after receiving almost 500 reports of Coronavirus breaches in a week.

The plea comes as Staffordshire continues to see high levels of Covid cases and an increase in hospital admissions across the county.

The force received 483 reports of Covid breaches from 4th - 11th November, with the majority of these being house parties and gatherings (mixing of households).

The peak of this came on Saturday 7th November, with 139 incidents.

There has also been an increase in businesses remaining open despite lockdown guidelines.

Over the weekend, a number of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) were issued, including one to the mother of a 17-year-old who was seen throwing a firework on a main road and was with a group of people who were not from his household.

His mother was given the FPN for failing to ensure her child complied with repeated directions to comply with Covid regulations.

Another was given to a 35-year-old man, from Stoke-on-Trent who did not isolate following his return from Poland.

Last night (Wednesday), officers gave FPNs to two people following reports that people were drinking inside a pub in Featherstone who did not live there. The force's licensing team will also contact the landlord about the breach.

Figures released by Staffordshire County Council show the county's rates per 100,000 of the population are now almost 60 per cent higher than the average England rate.

Superintendent Tom Chisholm, head of neighbourhood policing for Staffordshire Police, said: "We know the majority of people in Staffordshire have done their best to follow the regulations in order to reduce the spread of Covid-19.

"However, the virus is spreading rapidly in Staffordshire and in particular hospital admission are increasing dramatically which is putting huge pressure on healthcare services.

"To the minority who sadly do not accept the rules and mistakenly believe they do not apply to them, be prepared to face higher levels of enforcement.

"We are stepping up patrols, using robust enforcement consistently and working closely with partners to ensure a high level of adherence to these new restrictions to control the virus."