South Kesteven recorded 62 cases today, which keeps it on top of the districts for the most current numbers of Covid-19 infections in Lincolnshire.

The district now has a total of 4961 recorded cases, equivalent to 3483.3 cases per 100,000 or about one for every thirty individual since the pandemic started.

The case numbers also means South Kesteven has recorded 561 cases in the past week, up from 557 yesterday and part of a several day trend of declining cases.

This 561 is equivalent to a rate of 393.9 cases per 100,000 or about one in 250 of the county's population.

South Kesteven also recorded five deaths today of people dying with Covid 19, giving a grand total of 152, just more than one-in-a-thousand of the district population.

Overall, there were 379 new coronavirus cases and 13 COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire on Wednesday.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard recorded 311 new cases in Lincolnshire, 40 in North Lincolnshire and 28 in North East Lincolnshire.

On Wednesday, 10 deaths were registered in Lincolnshire and three in North Lincolnshire. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.

NHS England reported 12 new local hospital deaths on Wednesday, including seven at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, four at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals and one at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLAG).

On Wednesday, national cases increased by 47,525 to 3,211,576, while deaths rose by 1,564 to 84,767 – the highest deaths recorded since the pandemic started. However, some of these death numbers date back to May last year.

Around 17% of children are attending school in Lincolnshire for face-to-face lessons this week due to the COVID-19 disruption and national lockdown restrictions, council bosses revealed.

The third lockdown has delayed children going back to school after the Christmas holidays, only permitting vulnerable children and those of key workers to attend. All others have to learn remotely until the February half term.

A coronavirus vaccination centre will open at Lincolnshire Showground this week and patients in the area will be contacted by their GP to organise appointments.

A Lincoln takeaway has shut down after it breached COVID restrictions – USA Fried Chicken on Corporation Street was caught by Lincolnshire Police in breach of both coronavirus and licensing legislation.

It happened in September 2020 when takeaways were allowed to open and allow guests in as long as they were COVID-compliant and closed at the 10pm curfew.

Similarly, another COVID breach saw a hotel owner in Skegness trying to convince police officers that people seen drinking in his bar were in his "social bubble" but owned up when CCTV was checked.

The impact of COVID-19 put a £1.5 million black hole in South Holland District Council's budget for this year, but neighbouring South Kesteven leaders say they have financial protection.

In national news, a large-scale trial of a new treatment to stop COVID-19 patients from developing severe illness has begun in the UK.

The first patient received the treatment at Hull Royal Infirmary on Tuesday afternoon. The NHS is considering plans to discharge patients into hotels as hospitals become swamped with COVID patients, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed. He said it was "impossible to know" how long lockdown restrictions might last. AstraZeneca says it expects to release two million doses of the Oxford vaccine every week by mid-February and has asked for its workers to get priority access to avoid COVID outbreaks hindering production. This comes as the government aims to administer two million vaccines a week. Every district in Greater Lincolnshire has seen an increase in its infection rate except Boston, which remained the same since Monday (302.1 per 100,000 people). The national average has also risen in two days from 629.3 on Monday to 654.9 on Wednesday. Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Wednesday, January 13

42,765 cases (up 379)

29,474 in Lincolnshire (up 311)

6,749 in North Lincolnshire (up 40)

6,542 in North East Lincolnshire (up 28)

1,617 deaths (up 13)

1,139 from Lincolnshire (up 10)

262 from North Lincolnshire (up three)

216 from North East Lincolnshire (no change)

of which 956 hospital deaths (up 12)

574 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (up seven)

28 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (up four)

1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)

353 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (up one) Altogether, the UK has seen 3,211,576 cases and 84,767 deaths.