Durham's director of public health has said the recent spike in coronavirus cases across the county has been driven by under-24s.
Amanda Healy, Durham’s director of public health, said the rise in cases is a "concern" but said it has been driven by those aged 19-24 who have not yet been fully vaccinated.
In Durham city centre, one in 50 people tested positive last week with figures, published on Wednesday afternoon, showing the area has an infection rate of 1,989.9 per 100,000 people after cases more than trebled in the past week.
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But the health boss has since backed a new campaign to 'Keep the North East Open' which encourages people to continue to do all they can to keep the virus at bay so that the region can remain open.
The health boss encouraged people to get vaccinated and said a number of pop-up walk-in clinics and vaccination buses were available for people to get their jab without an appointment.
She said: "It is a concern, we know now that the spike in cases has been driven from the younger population aged 19-24 and that's a group in the population that are not fully vaccinated.
"It has been a really challenging time for young people with restrictions, they want to be out socialising and seeing their friends but that's why we're really getting the message out there to get vaccinated.
"We know the vaccine is effective against the Delta variant so it's so important to get as many people as possible jabbed.
"We understand some people have questions or are lacking in confidence about the vaccines but there is lots of information available for people to look at.
"The vaccination buses have been really successful we had over 400 turn up for one."
New research carried out by the seven North East councils shows that 90% of local residents think it’s important to follow the guidance to help keep local businesses open.
It also revealed that 75% of the region don’t want to rush into doing things even with restrictions easing soon and only 12% feel restrictions are being relaxed too slowly.
The research, conducted the week ending June 1, involved a representative sample of residents from County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland– known as the LA7.
Amanda added: "What's really important is 90% of residents wanted to stick to the rules to keep businesses open.
"What businesses need is people to come to their premises, whether it be a shop or factory and comply with the rules. We're all in this together.
"We want to keep our region open where it is safe and possible to do so."
The recent spike has seen a number of schools close due to Covid and students at Durham University were asked to take three Covid tests a week after a "significant" outbreak of the Delta variant.
But Amanda said they believe the transmission is still occurring in households and encouraged people to still socialise outside when possible.
She said: "In County Durham, there are three schools closed and a nursery that is closed however schools have been amazing.
"I think whether it's a bubble or year group, that's a real challenge for schools and parents but we believe the transmission is in the community rather than in schools.
"We think it's probably in households and households getting together and that's why we're encouraging people to socialise outside where possible."
Business owners Mark and David Potts-Brown, co-owners of Woofs n Scruffs, at STACK Seaburn said opening a business in the middle of a pandemic was a "huge challenge."
David said: "Covid has had a massive impact on the majority of businesses. I don't think we ever thought it was unfeasible but it became really difficult.
"We had to close overnight and staff were put on furlough, it's been a huge challenge."
Mark said they'd love to see restrictions to ease as soon as it's safe to do so adding: "It's been a challenge from start to finish, worrying about paying the bills, worrying about paying the rent, worrying about staff, worrying about making redundancies which we have not had to make thankfully.
"If it's safe to do so, we'd love to see restrictions ease. I've seen an increase in people with Covid in the last week and some schools have closed but fingers crossed for July.
"A lot of people want to get back to normality, I think it's affecting everybody's mental health."
Gemma Dishman, the marketing and special project manager at STACK Seaburn said: "We were always confident in our product and what we could offer to our customers so we weren't deterred.
"We are really strict on Covid measures and we have lots of outdoor space and fresh air so people can come here and feel safe.
"We've had so much support from our customers who really love what we've created and who have continued to follow the rules."
