Council leader Spencer Flower, inset, said: "Covid-19 continues to carry risks for us all and numbers of cases are rising again across the country and here in Dorset" Dorset Council has delayed a return to the office for the majority of its staff – in response to increasing Covid infection numbers. A week after ‘freedom day’ on July 19 the majority of its office-based staff are continuing to work from home and are now likely to do so until at least the end of September. At the start of lockdown the council had around 2,500 people working from home and around 2,000 continuing to work in outside jobs including social care.