THE head of Bolton police's "covid cell" has spoken of his "frustration" after two people were fined after failing to quarantine after returning from holiday.

A businessman in his 40s from Horwich and a woman in her 20s, who is employed at a Bolton school, went back to work instead of self-isolating for two weeks as per the Government coronavirus rules.

They were both given fixed penalty notice fines of £1,000 on Tuesday.

Sergeant Phil Brown said: "In Bolton we have been using the 4 Es (Engage, Explain, Encourage, Enforce) for some time now.

"But when there is a clear and blatant breach of the restrictions there are being issued fixed penalty notices

"We have had two cases this week where it was clear that they were well aware of the rules.

"It is frustrating because of the effect it has on anyone else.

"We do not want further restrictions, we want a reduction in cases.

"I would like to ask the public to continue to follow the guidelines.

"The sooner the number of infections come down, the sooner the restrictions will be lifted."

Despite a minority of residents flouting the regulations, the majority of reports are not clear breaches of the rules.

Sgt Brown said: "The level of reports we are getting is staying around the same.

"The number of reports does tend to go up at the weekend.

"What we have found is that the majority of reports are ongoing long term issues between neighbours rather than covid issues.

"It is just a handful of reports that we are getting which are covid issues.

"The partnership we have in the covid cell is working really well.

"We have all had to come together really quickly to start advanced planning."

Police are working with Bolton Council and public health officials in managing the town's approach to helping to stop the spread of coronavirus.