Health bosses have warned residents to avoid perceiving the rollout of the Covid vaccine "as a silver bullet" as Nottinghamshire's infection rate fails to decrease faster.
Jonathan Gribbin, public health director for the county, spoke during a public health briefing on Friday, February 5, to emphasise case numbers "are still higher than we want them to be".
England's infection rate currently sits at around 260 cases per 100,000 people, while Nottingham city and the county combined is roughly 291 cases per 100,000 people.
Many areas of the city and county still have a higher-than-average infection rate to this day.
Mr Gribbin said: "We would like to see rates in the city and across the county fall further.
"It is partly that which is going to sustain some of the relief to our health and social care system. The rates that we have got at the moment are still higher than we want them to be.
"We don't have a general analysis of why the rates are not falling faster and we are also watching very carefully to see at what point they start to plateau out.
"It would be disappointing to see them plateau out at the level they are at the moment."
His comments come as cases in some areas of Nottingham and the wider county even started to increase.
For example, in the seven days to January 30, the latest available data, 61 new cases were recorded in Bulwell north.
This was a mark-up by 117.9% on the previous week, and the area now has an infection rate of 810.5 cases per 100,000 people.
In Hyson Green 46 new cases were recorded, a 35.3% increase on the previous week, meaning it now has an infection rate of 500 cases per 100,000 people.
Further north in Sutton central and Leamington, the area currently has an infection rate above 1,000 cases per 100,000 people, following a 77.1% rise in cases week-on-week.
Issuing his advice to residents, Mr Gribbin added: "It has been a difficult month on a number of fronts.
"We hear from the chief medical officer that at a national level we are past the peak. For context, the England average stands at 260 per 100,000 people, that stands as a reduction of 30% or so over the past week.
"For Nottingham city and Nottinghamshire county, taking that whole population into account, our rates stand at 291 per 100,000, which also represents a very significant reduction of 23%.
"With a couple of exceptions we have seen rates, all over the county, of people over 60 [with the virus] also declining, but not in all areas.
"I think it is signals like that which really cause us to urge people all across Nottinghamshire to stick with the guidance around lockdown.
"It is so encouraging to hear what is happening with the vaccine program and the prospects of that area really positive.
"But it would be an error for any of us to look to that as being a silver bullet and an excuse to drop our guard on any of these other rules.
"It is for that reason we are urging people to continue to stick with all the lockdown measures."
